Nissan begins testing self-driving cars on London roads

Starting next month, Nissan will test drive its self-driving cars on London’s roads. It is the first time such tests are being held on European public roads.

Nissan will only test its Leaf hatchback in the city of London, according to Reuters. Judging by the wording of the message, the test will also take no more than a month. It is not clear how many cars Nissan is releasing on London’s roads. Both the UK government and Nissan have expressed strong interest in a close partnership, despite the UK’s impending departure from the EU, which will hurt competitiveness.

Automakers BMW and Ford have also announced that they plan to hit Europe’s roads in 2017 as part of tests of their self-driving cars.

As was announced last year, European consumers will also be able to get a self-driving Nissan in 2017. Nissan reported in July of last year that its Qashqai with the partially autonomous ProPilot technology will be on the market in 2017. Initially, this car only supports autonomous driving in a single lane. Over the next four years, Nissan also plans to develop ‘support’ for multi-lane intersections and highways.

Nissan Leaf (Image: Reuters)