Nissan, leading a consortium of five partners, has successfully completed the UK’s latest autonomous driving (AD) research initiative, evolvAD.
Building on previous Nissan-backed projects in the UK, including HumanDrive and ServCity, evolvAD brings autonomous mobility closer to reality as part of Nissan’s global vision for a safer, cleaner, and more inclusive world.
Over 16,000 autonomous driving trials have been conducted across the UK’s highways, city centers, residential areas, and rural roads – all without a single incident.
David Moss, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Nissan AMIEO (Africa, Middle East, India, Europe, and Oceania) Region, commented:
*”All three research projects have been instrumental in deepening our knowledge of how AD technology performs in challenging driving environments.
“Collaborating with our dedicated partners to advance AD mobility has been a privilege. This technology has the potential to reduce human error, making driving safer, increasing efficiency for a cleaner environment, and expanding mobility access for those who may not currently have it due to location, age, or disability. Our UK team at Nissan Technical Centre Europe (NTCE) in Cranfield will continue developing this technology, and we look forward to bringing AD mobility services to our customers in the years ahead.”*
The successful completion of evolvAD paves the way for the next phase of AD deployment, which will assess whether UK cities and regions are ready to integrate autonomous driving systems and services.
Delivered by a five-member consortium, with Nissan as the technical leader, evolvAD was co-funded by the UK government and project partners.
The initiative received support from the UK government’s £100 million Smart Mobility Fund, managed by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and facilitated by Innovate UK, the country’s innovation agency.
Over the course of 21 months, five partners—Nissan, Connected Places Catapult, Humanising Autonomy, SBD Automotive, and TRL—worked together to enhance the UK supply chain’s technical readiness for future mass deployment of AD technologies.
Nissan is conducting global research on autonomous mobility services through its teams in Japan (Nissan Research Center), the UK (Nissan Technical Centre Europe), and the US (Nissan Advanced Technology Center, Silicon Valley). The latest addition to these efforts is the ‘Easy Ride’ Serena AD vehicle test in Yokohama, Japan, where Nissan aims to introduce autonomous mobility services.
By contributing to Nissan’s ongoing global developments in autonomous mobility, evolvAD provides crucial insights and data on adapting the technology for safe performance across different driving conditions worldwide.
Throughout evolvAD, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) underwent the UK’s most rigorous AD technology trials to date. Vehicles were tested in simulated environments and dedicated test tracks before moving onto real-world trials on urban, suburban, and rural roads.
These diverse road types present unique challenges for AD technology, such as navigating narrow, single-lane streets in urban residential areas at low speeds. Meanwhile, in rural regions where road markings are absent, Nissan developed a chassis control system to enhance braking and steering, ensuring that the AD vehicle performs as an Advanced Driver on winding roads at higher speeds.
Additionally, evolvAD CAVs leveraged existing infrastructure—such as CCTV in residential areas—to improve situational awareness, gathering information through vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. This innovative testing explored how CAV performance could be enhanced and laid the foundation for developing new V2I technologies.
With evolvAD, Nissan takes another significant step toward the future of autonomous driving, strengthening its commitment to innovation and mobility solutions that redefine modern transportation
