As promised, Nissan is rolling out its first semi-autonomous driving system this year, and the company is calling it ProPilot. But before we in the U.S. get our hands on?or, rather, off?it, Japanese families interested in a new minivan will get first dibs.
The ProPilot system makes its debut on the funky-fresh Serena, which is undoubtedly cooler than our market’s larger, bottom-selling Quest. The system is a highway assist. Like semi-autonomous assists from Audi and Honda, ProPilot can steer, brake, and accelerate automatically. But Nissan’s system is fully automated, including around S-curves, and yet it doesn’t rely on radar or lidar sensors.

Instead, Nissan claims a single camera?as opposed to the twin cameras in Subaru’s EyeSight system or the combo camera/radar/ultrasound in Tesla’s Autopilot?can accurately judge both lane markings and the preceding car’s distance in “three-dimensional depth.” We’re not certain how one video camera operating only in the visible light spectrum can do that, but there it is. It’s certainly a cheaper method of going about the self-driving business, and like Volvo’s current Auto Pilot, the system needs a car ahead to function. Mostly. Under 31 mph, ProPilot can’t work without tracking another car in the lane. But in constant traffic, the system works between 19 mph and 62 mph (Japan’s current maximum speed limit), although, when it does come to the U.S. at ...