Tokyo Motor Show 2015: Nissan's IDS Concept Will Show You The Best Cornering Lines, Then Drive Them For You (Video)
Nissan unveiled its next Leaf IDS Concept, a semi-autonomous EV complete with a glimpse of Nissan’s coming “Intelligent Drive” features that may be equipped on some of its cars by the end of the decade.
The IDS Concept boasts an autonomous piloted driving mode for conversationalists (the seats rotate inward to invite dialogue!) a movable dash with “Minority Report” pre-cog abilities (probably) and a submarine-style style steering wheel.
But those aren’t the best concept-ish features.
The IDS Concept communicates with a friendly dot-matrix-style display to share your status with the outside world because Facebook was so 2012. The car will also signal to nearby pedestrians when it has detected them, and when it’s safe to walk in front of the car.
And, according to Nissan, the IDS Concept’s heads up display will show drivers an ideal line through a corner to enhance drivability — and then take it by itself because you’re on autopilot and too busy to be disrupted from Twitter.
Aside from the gee-whiz stuff, the IDS Concept could serve as a future base for the next-generation Leaf and sport technology applicable to the near future. That Leaf, which made its debut in 2009, is getting a little long in the tooth and should be updated before the end of the decade.
According to the automaker, the IDS Concept boasts a 60 kWh battery, which is significantly larger than the Leaf’s current 24 kWh unit.
The IDS Concept also sports active autonomous safety features and “will assist the driver in taking evasive action” if necessary.
More by Aaron Cole
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It's going to be fun in a couple of years when a dozen different versions of autonomous driving software hit the market. Contributor mcs here has already dissed Volvo's attempts, the new Tesla "upgrade" seems weak. They'll all be heading wildly off in different directions while all claiming they have the only decent solution. Turn round for a chat with the passengers, and how do the airbags and seatbelts work when the dope in a 12 year-old F150 eating a McDonalds breakfast "sandwich" hits you while guzzling cawfee? Hmm? Oh, there's an update for that?
Is there an "Not butt-ugly" option someplace? Actually butt-ugly would be an improvement.