Car manufacturer Nissan is collaborating with Japanese developer of online games, e-commerce solutions and services for the automotive industry DeNA, among others, on Easy Ride. This is a mobility platform that uses autonomous vehicles based on the Nissan Leaf as taxis. The service will be tested in Japan from 5 March.
Easy Ride was announced by Nissan and DeNA in December. The mobility platform has been in development since January 2017. With the platform, Nissan and DeNA aim to give users more 'freedom in mobility'. Users can use the Easy Ride platform via a mobile app. Through this app, they can, among other things, specify the destination they want to travel to, order an autonomous taxi and pay after the ride. The companies remotely monitor the autonomous vehicles used for Easy Ride to ensure passenger safety.
The video below explains Easy Ride.
Tested from 5 March
The first test of Easy Ride will start on 5 March. This test will be conducted in the Minatomirai district near the Japanese city of Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture from 5 to 18 March. During this test, participants can travel in autonomous vehicles along a predetermined route between Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama and the Yokohama World Porters shopping centre. This route is about 4.5 kilometres long.
A tablet is mounted in the autonomous vehicles on which users are presented with content during the journey. This includes information about places of interest in users' immediate vicinity and coupons for both shops and restaurants in the area, which users can download to their smartphones via Easy Ride's mobile app. Nissan and DeNA expect to use this content to boost cities and neighbourhoods in which the Easy Ride platform operates.
Survey
After the trip, participants are asked to complete a survey. This asks not only about their travel experience with Easy Ride, but also about their opinion of the content they were presented with during the trip. Users are also asked to indicate what price they are willing to pay for a ride via Easy Ride. Nissan and DeNA will use this feedback to further develop the mobility platform.
Easy Ride is still under development. Nissan and DeNA plan to launch the Easy Ride platform in a limited environment in the long term initially. The full platform should be made available around 2020.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: Nissan (pictured)
Source: DeNA
