New Nissan Leaf Will Have One Pedal

rgMekanic

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The new Nissan Leaf with a new technology they are calling the "e-Pedal." Accelerating and braking will be done with one pedal in the new Leaf, accelerating and decelerating function as normal, but now braking will be accomplished by letting off the pedal completely. Nissan says it will make driving more engaging.

As a driving enthusiast, this sounds like hell for me. It also sounds quite dangerous, trying to change the muscle memory of every driver on the planet sounds like a task that will come with some accidents. My favorite is where Nissan says that 90% of driving tasks can be reliably completed using the e-Pedal. What about the other 10%? Is that where it kills you?

Nissan says that 90 % of driving tasks can be reliably completed using the e-Pedal. It will even hold you stopped on an incline and will stop rapidly in a city. What is it for? Nissan says that e-Pedal is meant to increase enjoyment of driving.
 
This should help maintain the Leaf's last place position on many people's shopping list.

And how the hell do you control how HARD you brake?!? Who comes up with this shit...

I give this a high 0% chance of working correctly in a snowstorm where pedal feel and experience are everything.
 
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This should help maintain the Leaf's last place position on many people's shopping list.

And how the hell do you control how HARD you brake?!? Who comes up with this shit...

I give this a high 0% chance of working correctly in a snowstorm where pedal feel and experience are everything.
If you're driving a leaf in a snowstorm, I already question your judgment.
 
Reading (viewing) comprehension for the fail...

0:51: "*Use conventional brake pedal for aggressive braking situations"

It doesn't just have one pedal. The accelerator is just used to indicate velocity, instead of power. No idea what it'll feel like.

It will probably be something you can disable in the car's settings menu. (a phrase which fills me with loathing...)
 
You guys are looking at this all wrong. They're just being brave.



One pedal driving? Sounds unsafe in more than one way. I'm sure it can't be any deadlier than the old Dodge Vipers.

The only way I can see it working is that it's always going to have the accelerator on, unless the pedal is pressed - like a normal brake?
 
...I'm still crying from the bumpercars correlation...well said sir <wipes tear>..well said....
 
So what happens in a Canadian winter when your water/ice covered foot slips off the pedal while going 60-100km on the highway? Sudden emergency braking?
Same thing when you NEED to emergency brake for say.. a kid running suddenly into a street after a toy?

There is absolutely no way this plays out well.
 
Three pedals - "LoL I have only two feet! Don't you know human anatomy?"
Two pedals - "LOL!!! I can't move with both feet on both pedals! What a dumb design."
One pedal - "This absolutely makes sense! The faster I go the harder I step on it, if I want to slow down and stop, just stop stepping on it!"
 
What if my foot gets tired or I get a cramp and lift my foot off the petal? The car brakes.... hard? Let me guess... this was designed by a fresh-out-of-school automotive design/engineering student that has 1.5 years of driving experience.... in the city.
 
emergency braking! who needs that shit?

hey look at me i'm nissan look i'm reinventing the wheel.

derp.

i bet this stupid car is autonomous and they are only adding pedals to satiate some federal law.

also in before steering wheel that always turns left unless you turn it right.
 
This is basically how the L mode on a chevy volt already works, it won't hard brake tho, only light braking. I've found it much better to drive with in city traffic than with 2 pedals. On the highway I shift into normal gear. Also, one nice benefit is if I do have to hard brake it helps me brake faster as it will start braking as I transition to the pedal instead of when I touch it, this has saved my bumper from an asshole cutting me off at least once already. Milliseconds count!
 
Most electric Cars already have this option. It helps with the regenerative brakes.

I have a chevy bolt and it does this if i use "L" instead of D.

Same with my ford focus electric.

To be honest, its pretty easy to get used to.
 
It has two pedals folks. this is just advanced regenerative braking

Heck, its like having a car in low gear or otherwise not driving like a hyperagressive asshat

My front brakes went 65,000 miles before needing a change and my rear have never been changed. Still on my second set of tires at 116K with plenty of tread left. All because I drove a stick for years and learned to use the accelerator only for pretty much everything I can.
 
Manual drivers with torquey cars already drive like this most of the time. It's not too much of a stretch to switch over to a 1 pedal feel. If you have driven an electric car, you already have a feel how strong regenerative braking can be. It will be interesting to see how it fares in winter driving, I can imagine it working better than traditional braking under most conditions as I heavily rely on engine braking in winter driving situations as it converts your forward momentum into compression energy to slow you down (which is a ton easier to control in low traction situations) than hard braking which triggers ABS due to low traction.
 
I don't see a problem with it. Engineers aren't stupid, most of the time. I'm pretty sure there will be a large button ( like the Eco button on my Honda ) to turn it on and off and pressing the real brake pedal will automatically turn e-Pedal mode off... just like doing so disables Cruise Control.
 
I mean... sure I guess? Initially I'd say why change something that is learned by all and switch it on it's ear... but then again the automatic transmission kind of did that as well, I'm sure there was some learning curve with people not using the clutch/downshift to slow down.
 
Every person demanding the one pedal feature will be lined up at the nissan dealer for this car. Although I don't recall anyone ever demanding a one pedal car.
 
quite a few others have already stated this but anyone blown away by this simply hasn't driven a hybrid or electric car much if at all regenerative braking removes a large part of the need for normal braking and frankly now that i'm so used to it in my Prius that when i drive something conventional i'm annoyed that when i release the gas pedal on them i hardly slow down and have to actually apply real brakes to slow down even a small amount, not to mention cruise control is about 10x better on a hybrid or electric car in part for the same reason, it can apply electric braking to some extent to hold the speed, but then there is also the lack of shifting gears as well with that but that is more of a CVT thing than hybrid/electric vs conventional. when i first got my Prius getting used to its two stage conventional brake pedal was about he only learning curve there was, i'm sure sense this is an optional feature people will once they are used to how regenerative braking works will love this feature and treat it much like cruise control as an optional as see fit mode of driving just like it is.
 
One pedal? I'm still driving with three like a total chump! Guess I should throw my car out and get with the times!

For the record, I hate Nissan and always have.
 
Yea, so as mentioned, how hard does fully off actually brake the car? Is it going to be 100% dependant upon crash avoidance and brake assist tech? Did they finally actually get rid of the conventional brakes and are using the motor instead? Too many questions.
 
Take just a one look at the dashboard of a Nissan and you know it's been designed by idiots.
 
Manual drivers with torquey cars already drive like this most of the time. It's not too much of a stretch to switch over to a 1 pedal feel. If you have driven an electric car, you already have a feel how strong regenerative braking can be. It will be interesting to see how it fares in winter driving, I can imagine it working better than traditional braking under most conditions as I heavily rely on engine braking in winter driving situations as it converts your forward momentum into compression energy to slow you down (which is a ton easier to control in low traction situations) than hard braking which triggers ABS due to low traction.

You can control the compression braking aspect with your clutch pedal or the gas pedal. Depending on your speed you're at and the gear you're in, you can get a whole lot of compression braking or zero compression braking. Either way, no manual car comes without a brake pedal, cause you'd take way too much room to bring your car to a complete stop without a brake pedal.

I don't see a problem with them trying to mimic compression braking on an electric, but no brake pedal just sounds stupid.
 
It seems unwise to try and do something like this right when autonomous vehicles are coming online. New alterations for driving interfaces are a waste of time and money to validate.
 
I just hope the mentioned vehicle settings menu is disabled if the vehicle is in motion. All we need is a bunch of Leaf enthusiasts with their heads locked into a frustrating morass of menu hell while the car is moving on public streets.
 
It has two pedals folks. this is just advanced regenerative braking

Heck, its like having a car in low gear or otherwise not driving like a hyperagressive asshat

My front brakes went 65,000 miles before needing a change and my rear have never been changed. Still on my second set of tires at 116K with plenty of tread left. All because I drove a stick for years and learned to use the accelerator only for pretty much everything I can.

My Mercedes wore its rear tyres to illegal levels in 12k miles. I used the accelerator too. Now with the current 4-matic the verdict is still out :) Even if your tires have a lot of tread they become hard in 2-3 years and lose their top performance. You should change them more frequently.
 
So they are basically copying Tesla which has a mode that starts to actively brake to regenerate power when you let off the "gas" pedal. Go Nissan...
 
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