Nonagenarian approval for Nissan evolvAD self-driving project 2025
Nissan has announced the successful completion of its evolvAD self-driving project, including on-road testing with a safety driver on rural roads in Bedfordshire.
As we covered back in 2023, Evolv was designed to build on the HumanDrive and ServCity projects. “Having done highway and city centre driving, the logical next step was the last miles – getting from a rural village onto a motorway or navigating a small urban side street to make a delivery,” explained Bob Bateman, Project Manager at Nissan Technical Centre Europe (NTCE).
To illustrate the benefits, Nissan invited 93-year-old grandfather-of-five Brad Ashton from Enfield – a retired comedy scriptwriter who prepared material for Groucho Marx, Tommy Cooper and Les Dawson – to try its latest autonomous driving technology… as you can see in this video:
Self-driving poll
As part of the project, Nissan commissioned OnePoll to conduct a survey of 1,000 people aged over 70. The key findings were: A chance to ride in a self-driving car would make 67% feel nervous, 24% intrigued. 64% would like “the tech of the future” to help people stay independent.
“I’ve always wondered what the cars of the future would be like – and this is it,” said Ashton. “I was very proud to be the first older person to try this car out.
“It was exciting travelling on these winding country roads with the team. I thought I would feel frightened or worried, but felt safe and relaxed throughout the experience.
“Being independent and still being able to drive is really important to me – my car is vital as my local bus service is quite poor, and my wife can’t get on a bus.
“People like me that depend on a car, or that can’t drive, will benefit from this tech to help them stay in touch with friends and family and keep them from feeling isolated, particularly in rural areas where there are fewer transport options.”
Self-driving VM
As technical lead for evolvAD, Nissan facilitated the driving of more than 16,000 autonomous miles along UK motorways, urban roads and country lanes, with no accidents.
David Moss, Senior Vice President, R&D for Nissan’s AMIEO (Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania) region, said: “It has been a privilege working with our dedicated partners to advance automated driving mobility.
“As well as making driving safer by reducing human error, and cleaner by improving efficiency, this technology can give many more people access to mobility who may not have it today due to location, age or disability.”
