Nissan’s ProPilot autonomous drive in new Serena wins Japan Car of the Year Innovation Award

Nissan ProPilot autonomous drive technology in the new Nissan Serena has won the 2016-2017 Japan Car of the Year Innovation Award. The win came after exhaustive testing by the J-COTY jury.

On sale since August 2016 under the concept ‘Big, Easy & Fun’, the fully redesigned fifth-generation Serena available with ProPilot has been well received by Japanese customers. Nissan has more than 30,000 orders for the innovative and spacious MPV since launch.

The awards ceremony took place today at the Tokyo International Exchange Center. Explaining why the Innovation Award went to the Nissan Serena with ProPilot, the J-COTY jury said: "This technology offering in the affordable MPV segment is a notable leap forward in the democratisation of fully advanced safety and comfort systems. We also praise the dual rear door and effortless hands-free sliding side-door functions."

The Japanese carmaker says what’s key to the Serena’s success is ProPilot autonomous drive technology – a central part of Nissan Intelligent Mobility’s Intelligent Drive philosophy. The winning version of ProPilot in use on the new Serena allows automated highway single-lane-keeping and, for maintaining safe forward distance in heavy traffic situations, Piloted Stop & Go.

These Intelligent Drive capabilities are firsts in this segment, a sign of what Nissan plans for ProPilot in its products in Japan and around the world.

The people behind ProPilot:

- What does an anthropologist bring to autonomous driving design?

- From NASA Mission Control to the driver’s seat