The All-Seeing Automobile

By Gregory Mone Posted 10.12.2007 at 11:28 am 2 Comments

Nissan is debuting a new technology in Japan this month. It's called the Around View Monitor, and it creates a composite image of the scene around your car. And I want one.

Four cameras, one each at the front corners, one at the back, and another near the driver's side rear wheel, capture the scene as shown in the images on the left. Inside, the driver sees the total picture, a top-down view. This technology could be a dream for parallel parking, and a bonus for parents who don't want to run over Little Susie's favorite toy as they back out of the driveway. The tech is slated to come to the US in December in the new Infinity EX35.—Gregory Mone

Previous Article: 300 MPG Car Opens For Business

Next Article: Hungry for Hybrids

2 Comments

Link to this comment

popsci

10/12/07 at 2:52 pm

Seems to me that this could be misleading.. the composite is presented in such a way that it appears that the camera pov is way above the van when in fact it's much lower... as a result the side or front cameras could be looking under an object with which the vehicle is about to collide.. especially at each corner of the vehicle. Examples could be anything from knee to waist level such as the bumper of another car or a railing. The rear camera I think would work fine, and for the front camera this wouldn't be such an issue since the driver's real field of view isn't as limited. This seems like an excellent system to keep you from hitting the curb, but not so sure about anything higher than that. Perhaps if the side cameras were mounted higher?

Link to this comment

popsci

11/06/07 at 3:58 am

dear designer this is a wonderful creativity.
rather this may be a failure,because not all the drivers are so skilled to observe the surroundings in the screen.but it shall be a success.congracts for your success.hatsof for ur creativity.