Nissan's Around View arrives in the US December

Ok, it's not a jetpack or flying car but Nissan's new Around View Monitor is impressive transportation tech nonetheless. Best of all, it's available this month in Japan's new Elgrand before showing up Stateside December in the new Infiniti EX35. The Around View Monitor synthesizes the system's four, 180-degree cameras into a single display for a bird's-eye-view of your car's position on the road. Now even Bridge-n-Tunnelers will be able to parallel park outside their favorite East Village bar. Full video after the break.

[Via FarEastGizmos]

[Matt H @ Oct 12th 2007 5:19AM]

Now that looks cool..

[Nex @ Oct 12th 2007 5:24AM]

i wonder how hard it would be to stream this over wifi to a laptop or server.. couple that with jamie from the mythbusters' remote control car.. no links sorry...

[Jons @ Oct 12th 2007 5:26AM]

GTA anyone?

[Jack @ Oct 12th 2007 7:14AM]

haha, just what I was thinking, a 3rd person one would be cool too

[Joe @ Oct 12th 2007 8:41AM]

180' + 180' = 3rd person

[kei @ Oct 13th 2007 10:30AM]

My thought exactly (GTA 1 and 2 to be more specific)!

[Chris @ Oct 12th 2007 6:01AM]

Hmmmm. Add this to a GPS receiver, cache the images tied to their lat/long positions, upload to a server and sync with other drivers images. You should then be able to build up maps of all the roads driven down by suitably equipped cars, updated on a regular basis.

Then sell the data to Virtual Earth / Google Earth as a very high-resolution aerial photo set!

[Matt H @ Oct 12th 2007 6:12AM]

Not exactly high resolution though, is it.

Twinned with GPS this could be a great way for insurance companies/police to investigate crashes.

Could also be an anti-theft device.

[Jason @ Oct 12th 2007 6:21AM]

Aerial photos they are not. These cameras are pointing _down_ from about head height, so all you'll capture is the road immediately around you.

Using it as you suggest, would only be useful if you want to know where the pot holes are on any given road are ;)

[Matt @ Oct 12th 2007 6:24AM]

Great. But the cameras aren't actually mounted above the car in the air are they. So what do you actually see on the monitor when you do try to park between two other vehicles? The cameras appear to be located at wing mirror height, so how much of the cars on either side do you see?

I'm not knocking the idea mind you - I'm just curious as to how it looks with other cars in the scene, the demo with white lines on the floor isn't really very representative (unless your a bit anal about parking "just so" within the lines)

[James Sonne @ Oct 12th 2007 9:12AM]

A video review of the Infiniti EX35 was posted online a month or so ago and it focused mainly on this feature. The view of other cars is fine, because the cameras are not pointed directly downward, especially not in the front or rear. The cameras are actually angled higher than you think and the images are morphed in real-time to provide the overheard like view, as well as composited from around the vehicle, so if a pedestrian walks beside the car you can still see an image of what's behind the pedestrian. The view of the cars when parallel parking is of course quite useful as well, and remarkably undistorted. Google for the video review of the Infiniti EX35.

[Nick @ Oct 12th 2007 6:46AM]

Whatever happened to people learning how to drive? Seems to me this will be another crutch for those tools that can't drive, thus adding to more accidents on the roads. Thanks but no thanks nissan.

[Rob @ Oct 12th 2007 11:47AM]

Yeah, because knowing how to drive makes you magically see beyond what is actually viewable from your position in a driver's seat.

[Mike @ Oct 12th 2007 6:47AM]

I'm a big fan of Nissan, I've owned three of them with a Murano presently. These are forever on the cutting edge of "What's Hot"

[Jono1 @ Oct 12th 2007 7:35AM]

Yay, now I can park my hideously ugly people mover thing without crashing it!

[Chris @ Oct 12th 2007 7:45AM]

Sure, all you'll get is a close-up of the road surface... but when you tile all the pictures together with the GPS data you'll have a live map, with all road markings shown. Obviously it'll just cover roads (unless you regularly take shortcuts over parks, through ponds etc) but it cCould be a great boost to the new wave of Satnav systems that show photos instead of drawn maps.... how many times have you wished you knew which lane to be in at the next junction?

[armelo @ Oct 12th 2007 8:27AM]

Loisaida is nightmare to park even if your not one of the BTC.
I could certainly use that when I took the driving test, would the proctor/tester pass someone using that?

[Think a Little @ Oct 12th 2007 8:01AM]

This tech should save a lot of little children from being run over by their moms. Hopefully.

[Pan_theFrog @ Oct 12th 2007 8:44AM]

I hope this is turned off while the vehicle is traveling at any decent speed. People are distracted enough (cell phone, make-up, kids, reading) without them keeping an eye on how close they are getting to the concrete barrier while failing to pay attention to the cars in front of them.

[James Sonne @ Oct 12th 2007 9:18AM]

It's each person's responsibility to not be distracted when driving, devices should not limit what people can do, laws should. If a person creates an accident while driving inattentively, they should be ticketed heavily, but a person should be able to do anything they find possible and reasonable while driving. It's not monitors or cellphones in cars that cause wrecks, it's people that aren't going to be paying attention anyway that cause wrecks. Cellphones/monitors don't distract people in and of themselves, they side there quietly and inanely until someone uses them when they are not capable of juggling the death-defying act of driving while using these things.

[Rob @ Oct 12th 2007 11:45AM]

@ Pan_theFrog: I have a completely opposite view, I hope this system IS active while driving. I think this could be one more visual aid to make sure no cars are in your blind spot before switching lanes. People have to look at their speedometers while driving, I don't see why this would be any more difficult to deal with.

[Pan_theFrog @ Oct 12th 2007 1:28PM]

James Sonne: I agree, but can you please explain this to the families of the ones that get killed by some moron, and then offer to be a witness in the lawsuit that follows.

Rob: I can see to many TV addicted morons staring at it, rather then looking where they are going. Also part of the problem with people changing lanes is that they do not bother to look at anything except beside them...not noticing the 18-wheeler coming up at 10 mph faster then they are going.

[Steve C @ Oct 12th 2007 9:29AM]

Not that I condone drunk driving, but I wonder if this could be used to see where you are in a lane... and thusly be easier to stay between the lines while intoxicated? Or would an intoxicated driver be more likely to rear-end a vehicle? It seems like one might be able to see on-coming objects in the view (not that you'd have ample time to react.)

I know that Nissan is one of the forerunners for putting a passive breath-alyzer into their vehicles. I certainly hope that happens soon if my ponderings prove accurate.

Also, doesn't the #1 blind spot worry you a bit? I don't imagine this would be very useful for parallel parking if you have a blind spot there. It seems like that would be one of the most important spots to be able to see, more so than the sides!

Also, the demo is worthless without cones at least, so that you can see how and where they come up on the screen.

[Vesh @ Oct 12th 2007 6:41PM]

Those blind spots actually refer to the typical blind spots for a driver in the average car, not blind spots with this system.

[Huh? @ Oct 12th 2007 9:31AM]

How Brown Cow?

[prokanda @ Oct 12th 2007 10:16AM]

Isn't that "How Now Brown Cow"? ;)

[Devin @ Oct 12th 2007 10:48AM]

Great Idea for buses.

[Jim @ Oct 12th 2007 5:43PM]

Bridge and Tunnelers? Wouldn't they be the ones that already know how to drive? This gadget is probably good for transplants to NYC who don't know how to parallel park in front of their favorite east village bar and call anyone who lives outside of manhattan bridge and tunnelers.