IRVINE, Calif.— Nissan Motor Co. plans to offer cars with self-driving technology by 2020, a senior company executive said on Tuesday.

"Nissan Motor Co. pledges that we will be ready to bring multiple affordable, energy efficient, fully autonomous-driving vehicles to the market by 2020," Executive Vice President Andy Palmer said during a presentation in Southern California.

Nissan is one of several major auto makers working to develop cars that can drive themselves. Silicon Valley search giant Google Inc. also is working on autonomous driving technology.

The push to perfect cars that can drive themselves, all the time or part of the time, is aimed in part at reducing the number of accidents caused by driver errors.

Mr. Palmer said Nissan will build by 2014 a proving ground to test its autonomous vehicle systems.