Nissan plans to introduce fully autonomous driving cars

The Japanese carmaker said it will test an autonomous ride-hailing service on public roads in Japan in March

Nissan Motor says it’s aiming to introduce fully autonomous cars to the market in 2022, as the Japanese carmaker strives to establish itself as a front-runner in driverless technologies.

The carmaker plans to add autonomous-driving functions step-by-step, first allowing more cars to handle single-lane driving by themselves, and subsequently navigate urban roads, including intersections, by 2020, said Yutaka Sanada, a Nissan senior vice-president, at Bloomberg’s Year Ahead Asia conference in Jakarta.

Nissan is racing with new entrants to the auto industry such as Google’s Waymo and Tesla as well as bigger rivals including General Motors to develop fully-autonomous driving cars. 

Waymo has a