Future astronauts will be able to drive sideways and manage some other cool moves when they travel around in NASA’s newest invention, a Nissan driverless car. This new kind of Nissan driverless car is essentially an electric robot rover dubbed the Modular Robotic Vehicle (MRV) prototype and is a revolutionary electric vehicle. The MRV was created by NASA at its Johnson Space Center along with help from Nissan in Japan, one of the leading car makers in the world.
The electric robot rover looks similar to a golf cart and is about 7 x 5 feet in size, and weighs about 1,980 pounds. It is capable of going about 40-miles per hour, and can travel a little over 60 miles on one battery charge. The MRV operator can drive the vehicle via a normal steering wheel like other cars, or remotely via a joystick.
Nissan Driverless Car Has Some Fancy Moves
This innovative Nissan driverless car is more of an electric robot rover, but it can be operated either manned or unmanned. The MRV also has some interesting abilities that no car or other vehicle can match, as it is built with four wheel modules that are liquid cooled and capable of allowing it to travel sideways, making it a breeze to park.
The MRV can also travel more easily around corners, and it can even make a 180-degree turn, as it is super agile. With its specially created drive by wire system, there aren’t any mechanical connections in the MRV’s steering, braking or propulsion.
Fail-Safes Make the MRV Safer, More Efficient
This Nissan driverless car is relevant because driverless cars were made for safety. As if to up the ante, this MRV is a totally electric vehicle, but also has a fail-safe in place if the primary engine quits, and a second computer system that can power and drive the electric robot rover if the primary motor and computer breaks down or fails. Plus, all four wheels work independently of each other, which would, for instance, make it possible for a driver to avoid a collision much more effectively and faster.
NASA reported that the main technology used to create their latest invention of the electric robot rover EV was grounded upon its current program of robotic methods and other rover vehicles. It is meant to be a futuristic car that could be used for future missions such as driving on Mars, as well as could help to develop other types of robotic cars to use here on Earth. They hope to have more collaborations with the car industry in the future, according to officials.
Additionally, since the electric robot rover MRV is just a prototype, NASA plans more testing and likely more development for this cool new electric car/rover vehicle. In the future, some lucky astronaut will be likely to get to travel around, perhaps on Mars with this shiny new and innovative electric rover vehicle built by NASA.
Watch this for a visual retelling of a road trip in Iceland–a retelling that would have definitely been made easier in a Nissan driverless car:
https://youtu.be/635q63-Znr0
