- Infiniti, the luxury division of Japanese carmaker Nissan, is considering rolling out highway self-driving capabilities for most new models, its president said on Tuesday, June 7, potentially overtaking German rivals in a race to offer autonomous driving, Reuters reports.
Executives for Chinese and global automakers speaking at final day of the Global Automotive Forum in Chongqing urged the industry to pursue autonomous driving as an advance that will reduce congestion and traffic deaths.
For Nissan's Infiniti, only the Q50 sedan is currently equipped with its latest generation steering system that allows for autonomous driving above 60 kilometers per hour on the highway, Reuters.
"This will be rolled out as we are launching new vehicles one by one," Roland Krueger, Infiniti's president, told Reuters.
"Whenever we are launching the next cars with such a steering system or the next generation of these systems, then of course we would offer those features to our customers."
More advanced autonomous driving features, such as those beyond highways, will require advances in infrastructure and regulation, Krueger said, according to Reuters.
Autonomous drive will appeal to younger, more daring buyers, that the brand targets, especially in China where Infiniti's average buyer is in their mid-thirties, he said.
