Toyota rolls out Night View-equipped, pedestrian-finding Crown Hybrid

Night view isn't exactly a new technology, but Toyota's latest implementation of it in its Crown Hybrid luxury sedan is a bit different than most. Unlike the company's previous effort, which displayed images straight on the windshield, this one makes use of an LCD in the dashboard, which also does double duty by displaying the speedometer and all the vehicle's other vitals. What's more, the system also takes things to Terminator-like levels with a pedestrian recognition system, although that apparently only works at speeds below 60 kilometers per hour (the company says it's also working on a means of recognizing bicycles and animals). No word on exactly what sort of premium all that will demand, but Toyota admits it'll be "several times more expensive than the existing meters."

[Ray @ May 29th 2008 1:59PM]

TARGET ACQUIRED!

[phanbouy @ May 29th 2008 1:59PM]

VALUE: 500 POINTS

[Technex @ May 29th 2008 2:55PM]

Oh man, you read my mind.. I thought lets hit comments and see who has said this, and there you are at #1, thank you.

:)

[edzy @ May 29th 2008 3:17PM]

..."Initiating classic Hood Ornament targeting system."

gotta love those old hood ornaments.

[Ace b @ May 29th 2008 3:26PM]

Dude,I think toyota might be trying to make a consumer grade Knight Industry Three Thousand.That would be sweet.

[AJ in the East Bay @ May 29th 2008 1:59PM]

Wow, that's pretty cool! I like.

[Beastage @ May 29th 2008 2:00PM]

[Mr Burns]Excellent[/Mr Burns]

I just hope they find a good location on the dashboard to place it, so it wont distract the driver from the incoming 18 wheeler.

[Andrew @ May 29th 2008 2:04PM]

I'd say that looks like an entirely redesigned "gauge cluster" to me.

[Idlemind @ May 29th 2008 2:02PM]

at first glance, I thought that was a NYC Parking meter...

[Jeff @ May 29th 2008 2:19PM]

That apparently seems to track when the drivers walk away from their cars so you can ticket them.

[IT-Accountant @ May 29th 2008 2:16PM]

Notice how the apparently functioning pedestrian recognition system is working while it is traveling at 0 km/h- a speed at which such a system is useless.

[Vinay @ May 29th 2008 2:18PM]

That's 'cause the car has run out of fuel, silly!

[raptor87 @ May 29th 2008 2:20PM]

and its E degrees outside

[J L @ May 29th 2008 2:27PM]

Plus, the air bag light is on... Did the air bags deploy?

[Michael @ May 29th 2008 4:53PM]

That damn 18 wheeler came out of nowhere!!!!!

[Fray @ May 29th 2008 2:24PM]

Headlights are so 20th century. These days we use night vision cameras and recognition systems to keep the people we stalk from noticing us.

Its only a violation of the restraining order if they can see you and alert the police.

[Raytaka1222 @ May 29th 2008 3:50PM]

+1 for that comment

[wrabbit @ May 29th 2008 2:25PM]

Pedestrian-finding system that requires you to take your eyes off the road kinda defeats its won purpose.

[wrabbit @ May 29th 2008 2:25PM]

won = own

* Engadget, it's 2008, why the heck don't you have an edit button??

[Kizorblade @ May 29th 2008 2:43PM]

Edit buttons are sooo 2007.

Agreed. Edit button plzkthxbai.

[psxp @ May 29th 2008 2:48PM]

will help those short people who cant see over the dash on a regular day!

[Phil @ May 29th 2008 3:37PM]

yeah, i read the title and i thought it said pedestrian-finding crowd..
"seeking crowds...target acquired..initiating destruction phase 1, destruction"
phase 2: kill them again when they become zombies
phase 3: clean the grill
*repeat*

[Henry @ May 29th 2008 2:34PM]

"I see everything."

[CaberetVoltaire @ May 29th 2008 2:42PM]

This is the same EXACT thing in my BMW - Actually it looks like the same picture ripped off from and old picture BMW had up demonstrating this feature

[Eric M. @ May 29th 2008 3:08PM]

I see this in Grand Theft Auto V!

[Zach @ May 30th 2008 12:08AM]

really? i purposefully miss this in grand theft auto then, it would seem.

as i said to my mother while driving (i recently got my permit): maybe playing grand theft auto wasn't such a great idea before driving.

[gaz.wong @ May 29th 2008 3:13PM]

The Mercedes S Class has had this IR nightvision for ages.

[i.c. weiner @ May 29th 2008 4:37PM]

except it doesn't spot pedestrians

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ May 29th 2008 6:40PM]

Cadillac was the first to add night vision.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ May 30th 2008 2:05AM]

And Lincoln was the first to use XEON HiD headlights.

[Adam @ May 29th 2008 3:12PM]

I see dead people.

[Timmy @ May 29th 2008 5:11PM]

I see soon to be dead people!

[Ian @ May 29th 2008 3:14PM]

YAY no more hitting pedestrians for me!

[Matt @ May 29th 2008 3:19PM]

The dogging crowd are going to love this.

[Kaiser-Machead @ May 29th 2008 3:33PM]

It needs more superfluous scrolling text giving you some ambiguous computer analysis of the target that you'll never read, and perhaps a 3D model of them rotating in an area just for that so you know that this interface means business.

[Darkest Daze @ May 29th 2008 5:01PM]

Skynet would be pleased with you.

[zeratul @ May 29th 2008 3:41PM]

it'd be cooler if it was displayed on the windshield. probably more useful too

[Beef @ May 29th 2008 5:00PM]

Welcome to 8 years ago. Cadillac had this wayyyyyy back.

[Magallanes @ May 29th 2008 5:47PM]

This will be good until people will trust completely on this gadget (for example, the people that trust in their gps over their own common sense).

[austin @ May 29th 2008 7:12PM]

Or that they might suffer from target fixation and steer towards the pedestrians.

[MichaelD @ May 29th 2008 7:59PM]

Now they just need to allow you to select and deselect targets so you make sure only to hit the childr--er, terrorists. Tony Stark would be proud.

[Jerry Kindall @ May 29th 2008 10:21PM]

"Crown" is "kammuri" in Japanese, from whence the English name of the model, "Camry," is derived.

[thedesolate1 @ May 29th 2008 11:53PM]

Well now we know who to blame when Skynet gets activated and we are being chased by car drones..

[DiscoCat5 @ May 30th 2008 5:00AM]

the point of this is???

[toyotaboy @ May 30th 2008 1:53PM]

death race 3000?

I for one welcome our LCD gauge overlords