Innovators for control of Autonomous car market

Nissan has teamed up with NASA for driverless R&D.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The battle for supremacy in the driverless car market is revving up.

While companies like Google are investing heavily in the technology, traditional automakers are striving not to be eclipsed

Traditional automakers such as Nissan say they are developing autonomous cars to reduce the number of accidents. A spokesman for Nissan told China Daily that the company's goal is to eliminate fatal accidents.

"This goal, together with the zero-emission one, are the two major directions of Nissan's technological routes," he says.

Nissan's self-driving car has sensors and scanners that search for physical barriers, road signs and other potential threats on the road. The data is fed into sophisticated computers which then order the car to speed up, detour or stop.

In July, Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn announced that most of the company's new models will be equipped with a self-parking system. A feature that allows cars to pass through city intersections without driver intervention will be added by the end of the decade.

City intersections are a headache for most driverless technology engineers, as the traffic lights, pedestrians and other vehicles at intersections pose a challenge for self-driving vehicles. It is believed that once this problem is solved, self-driving on other city roads will be a piece a cake.

Companies like Nissan are looking outside the auto industry for partnerships to improve the technology. Earlier this month, Nissan and NASA's Ames Research Center announced a five-year research and development partnership for autonomous driving systems. Nissan won't be the only beneficiary of this cooperation, as NASA will also seek better technologies in future space exploration.