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fork(2) [soylentnews.org] writes:

      IEEE Spectrum [ieee.org] (doesn't appear to be paywalled) carries an article about Nissan's self-driving feature.

Nissan is about to offer a semiautonomous feature that's quite like Tesla's Autopilot. Not only does it sound like it - "ProPilot" - it also depends on a mono-camera sensor and on Mobileye [mobileye.com] processing.

      Nissan is working very hard to emphasize the "semi" part of the word "semiautonomous," billing ProPilot [nissannews.com] as an improved form of cruise control -- not as a robotic chauffeur that’s "almost twice as good as a person." That's what Tesla honcho Elon Musk said of Autopilot on 25 April [techinsider.io], 12 days before a Tesla Model S under Autopilot control crashed into a truck [ieee.org], killing the car's driver. It was the first fatality attributed to a modern, self-driving car.

      [...]

      With the Nissan, push a button and ProPilot maintains a fixed distance to the car in front of you, keeping within the lane and braking when necessary. Take your hands off the steering wheel, and it will nag you to put them back; ignore the nagging, and the system will cut off.

      [...]

      And Nissan customers are about as different from Tesla's as you can get. ProPilot will initially be offered only in Japan, on the Nissan Serena, a staid and practical minivan. Tesla's cars are feline, earth-clawing performance cars, and their mostly American drivers are, as you'd expect, a rather adventurous breed [ieee.org], to judge by the Youtube videos they post.

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