A Long Road Trip Singing with My Kids — The Comfort of the Nissan ARIYA’s Hands-Off Driving
We were singing along with the kids, and before we knew it we’d made it from Tokyo to Toyohashi. Hi, I’m Hide — tech journalist and part-time house-husband.
This time, I took a long road trip in Nissan’s electric ARIYA: Tokyo to Toyohashi, then Nagano and Shiga, and back to Tokyo. Bottom line: right now, the ARIYA is the car in Japan that most changes the experience of getting around. I’ll say that with confidence.
A futuristic, premium-looking exteriorThe back seat is roomy too — it feels luxurious wherever you sit
## ProPILOT 2.0 delivers “officially approved hands-off” driving
On major highways you can drive hands-off. The front light turns blue when you can take your hands off the wheel.
The headline feature is ProPILOT Assist 2.0. When conditions are met, you can stay in your lane on the highway with your hands off the wheel.
It goes beyond “assist” and delivers an amazing driving experience
In practice, it kept the car centered in the lane and followed the car ahead smoothly. Lane-change assist with the turn signal felt natural too, almost like a human driving. Warnings when the system disengages are easy to understand, and it’s polished enough that I felt comfortable trusting it for long stretches.
Turning family travel into meaningful time
The roof makes the space feel incredibly open
During daytime driving, I let the car handle most of it and got to chat with my wife and sing with the kids.
The center console slides forward and back, and the back seat gets A/C, charging, and seat heaters — really nice touches
Normally, I’d be thinking, “The kids are getting bored — where do we take our next break?” This trip, that worry mostly went away. Not being stuck focusing on driving made the car feel like an extension of our living room, and the long drive turned into a family event.
Strengths and weaknesses next to the competition
Honda’s Legend, the first Japanese car to achieve Level 3 autonomous driving
Honda achieved the world’s first Level 3 autonomy with the Legend, but only in traffic jams. Mazda, meanwhile, brakes and accelerates very gently, giving you the kind of reassurance a good taxi driver does.
Hyundai’s KONA, which has greatly improved its driver-assist feel
Hyundai is gaining ground with a dedicated EV platform and a good balance of price and performance. Toyota/Lexus have rolled their tech out only on luxury models, so Nissan is a step ahead in spreading the experience to more users. European brands have their own character, but for convenience tailored to Japanese highways, Nissan’s polish stands out.
Challenges with the battery and charging
The ARIYA has a big battery that makes long trips worry-free
The ARIYA has a battery over 90 kWh, so long trips feel safe. But with repeated fast charging, there were moments it seemed to drain faster than I expected. Charging overnight on 200V at home, the battery level seemed to drop more steadily.
Fast-charging and home-charging ports on either side
Meanwhile, family models like the Serena and X-Trail have smaller batteries and aren’t plug-ins. By comparison, Mazda’s MX-30 Rotary-EV offers a hybrid-like peace of mind: 80 km of EV driving plus gas-powered generation. How to bring EV benefits to 6–8-seat family cars is going to be a big challenge going forward.
Business risks and technical strengths
Nissan faces challenges like the collapsed merger with Honda, its relationship with Renault, and Mitsubishi’s slump. Uncertainty about its management still lingers.I like the direction of putting ProPILOT 2.0 in family cars too
Even so, Nissan has put ProPILOT 2.0 not just in the ARIYA but in mainstream cars like the Serena and X-Trail. Actually delivering a changed driving experience to real users is a big strength. With all its business ups and downs, its commitment to turning tech into real products is what sets Nissan apart.
The future the ARIYA showed me
Range, a comfortable ride, and “officially approved hands-off driving.”Right now, the Nissan ARIYA is the car in Japan that changes your experience of getting around the most.
How Nissan gets past its business challenges — that’s where its true strength will be tested.
