Nissan, DeNA to Test Self-Driving Mobility Service Using App

Tokyo, Dec. 5 (Jiji Press)--Nissan Motor Co. <7201> and DeNA Co. <2432> said Tuesday that they will conduct in March an experiment of an autonomous mobility service they plan to commercialize in the early 2020s. The public field test will be held with two units of Nissan's Leaf electric vehicle with a self-driving system in the Minato Mirai area of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, on March 5-18, to examine issues involved in putting the robo-vehicle service, dubbed Easy Ride, into practical use. The companies started Tuesday recruiting people to take part in the test for free through the service's website. In the test, the participants will set where to ride and get off on proposed routes and book vehicles by using a dedicated smartphone app. It will be the first experiment to link autonomous mobility and an app in Japan, company officials said. When the Easy Ride service will be put into practical use, users will be able to set destinations, call vehicles and pay fees through an exclusively developed smartphone app, the companies said. Vehicles will be driverless in the commercial service, with the safety of their operations secured by a remote monitoring system. But during the upcoming test, drivers will be on board the vehicles just in case. END