It’s turning out to be a stellar year for the future of autonomous driving as NASA’s Ames Research Center and Nissan North America announced they’re teaming up to develop their own self-driving vehicles that can navigate streets on earth and the surface of Mars.
The five-year R&D partnership was announced on Thursday, and engineers from the space agency and the auto company will work together to create technology that could be used in terrestrial vehicles and space rovers. Nissan has set 2020 as the estimated year of introduction of the autonomous vehicles, which will have the ability to navigate in “nearly all situations.”