A car that drives itself by 2020

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Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel, except in a self driven car. Nissan says it will be ready with multiple, commercially-viable Autonomous Drive vehicles by 2020.
Look, ma, no hands!
Nissan, the sixth-largest automaker in the United States, announced Tuesday it will sell a self-driven car by 2020.

The company outlined its plans before a gathering of reporters from around the world meeting at a Nissan press event in Irvine, Calif.
[URL="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/7201.T-JP"]Nissan[/URL] CEO Carlos Ghosn was scheduled to brief reporters, but unexpectedly canceled at the last moment. Nissan executives gave no reason for the cancellation.
However, Ghosn said in a statement: "In 2007 I pledged thatâ??by 2010â??Nissan would mass market a zero-emission vehicle. Today, the Nissan LEAF is the best-selling electric vehicle in history.
"Now I am committing to be ready to introduce a new ground-breaking technology, Autonomous Drive, by 2020, and we are on track to realize it."
Instead of Ghosn, a group of senior Nissan executives outlined the technology of the Nissan 360 program to reporters.
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Nissan said it is working with several universities around the world including Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Oxford and the University of Tokyo to develop the technology for self-driven cars.
At this point, the company is not collaborating with [URL="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOG"]Google,[/URL] which has received worldwide attention for its work on autonomous driven vehicles, including the so-called "Google car."
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Nissan is building a test track in Japan specially designed to replicate the challenges self-driven cars will face in real world conditions. The company is estimating the cost of adding autonomous driven technology to a luxury sedan will only be $1,000.
Nissan is not the only automaker racing to build and sell self-driven cars: [URL="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/F"]Ford[/URL], [URL="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GM"]General Motors[/URL] and [URL="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/7203.T-JP"]Toyota[/URL] are also developing technology that would allow cars to steer, brake and accelerate with little or no involvement with the driver.

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A handful of states have already passed laws establishing guidelines for testing autonomous-driven vehicles in real world conditions.
Still, few expect self-driven cars to roll out in big numbers in the near future.
While Ghosn canceled his appearance in Irvine, he did issue a statement about developing autonomous driven vehicles: "In 2007 I pledged thatâ??by 2010â??Nissan would mass market a zero-emission vehicle. Today, the Nissan LEAF is the best-selling electric vehicle in history. Now I am committing to be ready to introduce a new ground-breaking technology, Autonomous Drive, by 2020, and we are on track to realize it."