Toyota rolls out Night View-equipped, pedestrian-finding Crown Hybrid
By Donald Melanson 
posted May 29th 2008 1:54PM
posted May 29th 2008 1:54PM
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."
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VALUE: 500 POINTS
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.
:)
..."Initiating classic Hood Ornament targeting system."
gotta love those old hood ornaments.
Dude,I think toyota might be trying to make a consumer grade Knight Industry Three Thousand.That would be sweet.
Wow, that's pretty cool! I like.
[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.
I'd say that looks like an entirely redesigned "gauge cluster" to me.
at first glance, I thought that was a NYC Parking meter...
That apparently seems to track when the drivers walk away from their cars so you can ticket them.
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.
That's 'cause the car has run out of fuel, silly!
and its E degrees outside
Plus, the air bag light is on... Did the air bags deploy?
That damn 18 wheeler came out of nowhere!!!!!
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.
+1 for that comment
Pedestrian-finding system that requires you to take your eyes off the road kinda defeats its won purpose.
won = own
* Engadget, it's 2008, why the heck don't you have an edit button??
Edit buttons are sooo 2007.
Agreed. Edit button plzkthxbai.
will help those short people who cant see over the dash on a regular day!
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*
"I see everything."
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
I see this in Grand Theft Auto V!
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.
The Mercedes S Class has had this IR nightvision for ages.
except it doesn't spot pedestrians
Cadillac was the first to add night vision.
And Lincoln was the first to use XEON HiD headlights.
I see dead people.
I see soon to be dead people!
YAY no more hitting pedestrians for me!
The dogging crowd are going to love this.
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.
Skynet would be pleased with you.
it'd be cooler if it was displayed on the windshield. probably more useful too
Welcome to 8 years ago. Cadillac had this wayyyyyy back.
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).
Or that they might suffer from target fixation and steer towards the pedestrians.
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.
"Crown" is "kammuri" in Japanese, from whence the English name of the model, "Camry," is derived.
Well now we know who to blame when Skynet gets activated and we are being chased by car drones..
the point of this is???
death race 3000?
I for one welcome our LCD gauge overlords