Nissan prepping "intelligent" transportation safety system

Not content with stopping drunk-driving through technology, Nissan has set its sights on bad driving in general, with the car company set to being testing a new transportation safety system that'll alert you when you're speeding and provide other vital info to keep you out of harm's way. The system, which works in conjunction with Nissan's Carwings service, collects traffic information from other cars and from roadside beacons, relaying pertinent info straight into your vehicle, which will then alert you K.I.T.T-style of imminent danger... or a traffic light. Unfortunately, it looks like it's still a ways off from widespread use, with testing set to being next month Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan and continue through March of 2009, with some 10,000 drivers expected to take part. It seems Nissan hasn't taken into account the fact that the system may already be obsolete by then, what with humans taken out of the equation.

[Via Northwest Flordia Daily News]

[Roma @ Sep 17th 2006 7:32AM]

The second-year student the genius! Well done

[Frank @ Sep 17th 2006 7:39AM]

Only in Nissan dreams...

[endodoc @ Sep 17th 2006 10:14AM]

Safety proponents place too much focus on reducing speeding. The real danger is driver distraction/inattention. A higher speed will certainly lower reaction time and increase the severity of most accidents. However, it is rarely the CAUSE of the accident. If everybody was aware of their surroundings and the movements of the other cars we could safely travel at much higher speeds. Unfortunately, it is dificult to police driver attention, it is much easier to fine speeders. I commute 75 miles each day. I average at least 2 evasive maneuvers everyday to avoid an accident when some inattentive driver violates the rules of the road. Their speed is not a factor, unless they are going too slow. Lower speed limits do not make them pay better attention to their fellow drivers. If anything, the lower speed limits create the safety margin needed to allow for inattentive drivers.

[Tay Ween @ Sep 17th 2006 10:50AM]

No one is going to buy a car that alerts them that they are speeding. That would get rather annoying. When it comes to "intelligent" cars I think it is an all or nothing deal. Either every car just drives itself or none do. This whole system, like endodoc has pointed out, is only going to give people another thing to be distracted by.

[Jarno Peschier @ Sep 18th 2006 6:38AM]

My current navigation system warns me if I'm going faster than the speed that is stored on the mpa CD for the road I'm on. Not perfect, but I actually like it. Stuff like this Nissan proposed system and the systems Siemens is working on (among other things: reading road signs to get a better accurate picture of current road speed conditions and warning you if you go over them) actually seem like not such a bad idea. Provided you can turn them off if you don't want to that information. I agree with you that a lot of drivers would probably hate it...

[Tyson Tune @ Sep 17th 2006 5:56PM]

It all makes since now. Given that Nissan USA is now headquartered out of Nash-"Holy, crap, learn to Drive!"-ville, I see where all these driver aide ideas are coming from.

[granny down east @ Sep 17th 2006 11:16PM]

Only a matter of time until the embedded wireless device in these modules signals the robo-cop at the next intersection that you've been a bad boy.

I, for one, welcome our chip-embedded Altima overlords.

[Patrick @ Sep 18th 2006 12:32AM]

As noted above, speeding != Bad driving.

Inattention, inappropriate action and reaction, timidness, over-agressiveness == bad driving.

[smashr @ Sep 18th 2006 9:56AM]

I'm 95% certain that picture is from a BMW, not a Nissan.