ATSUGI, Japan, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co., Japan's third-biggest carmaker, is getting serious about drink-driving and clean diesel - though it's certainly not mixing the two.

At a brand new campus bathed in light, surrounded by water and a view of the mountains to the west of Tokyo, Nissan engineers work on the technology for tomorrow's cars.

Researchers here have developed various gadgets to keep drunks off the road, group officials said on Tuesday.

"In Japan, we have a lot of road deaths due to drinking," said Kazuhiro Doi, general manager of technology marketing at the Nissan Advanced Technology Centre (NATC).

Working by the motto "Trusted Driving Pleasure", Nissan is aiming to reduce the number of incidents involving drivers of its cars to "virtually zero", though it doesn't give precise targets.

A test car in the research centre contains a series of devices for judging whether a driver has been drinking that work less intrusively than alcohol-lock tests, where a driver has to breath into a detector before starting the engine.

Nissan's car has sensors underneath the driver's head-rest and on the gear stick. When these sensors detect alcohol, the car issues an announcement and a message on the dashboard advising the driver not to start.

To get the point across, the gear stick also freezes.

If a driver gets past these tests and starts their journey, a camera then monitors facial expressions. If he or she blinks too often, this is taken as a sign of drunkenness and the car warns the driver to stop, while their safety belt tightens a little.

Another gadget follows the trajectory of the car and issues warnings when driving gets erratic, applying brakes left and right to correct the swerving.

DIESEL

Unlike in Europe, Japanese drivers don't use much diesel, but Doi said Nissan will try to introduce its clean diesel technology here next year. Its M9R diesel engine is already available in the Qashqai sports utility vehicle in Europe and has low NOx and particles emissions.

Nissan is working on a super-ultralow emission vehicle (SULEV) diesel engine by improving combustion technology, using a new 'trap catalyst' and improving engine control.

It also aims to reduce its use of precious materials such as platinum in catalysts to cut costs.

In the white NATC buildings, Nissan researchers also work on electrical engines of the future in co-operation with partners such as France's Renault, which has a 44 percent stake in the Japanese firm.

The Atsugi centre concentrates its research efforts on the Japanese market, although it is also part of a global network.

Posters on the walls remind workers where their real driving force lies, though: "The power comes from inside."