The End Of The Blind Spot

Nissan is currently developing a system that will eliminate blind spots from around the vehicle with a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding area displayed on a central monitor.

Rear view cameras are becoming more of a standard feature these days … at least on Nissans. The rear view system now available on nearly every model in the Nissan range eliminates the worst blind spot during reversing i.e. what’s beneath your rear window. But there’s a second blind spot along both sides of the car. To eliminate this, side mounted cameras need to be fitted as they have been to the Presage model on sale in Japan since June 2003. Now Nissan is testing front mounted cameras. Even more amazing is that the driver sees an image on the dashboard mounted monitor as if he or she were looking down onto the car. It also shows up everything around it.

Cameras mounted at the front and rear and on both sides take pictures of the surrounding road surface, which are synthesized by an image processing technique into one view that is shown on a central display. The system is especially helpful when parking, enabling the driver to steer easily and precisely into a parking space. It also eliminates any fear of running over the neighbour’s prized belongings or posts or animals or anything else for that matter.

Although there is no confirmed release date for this advanced technology or what vehicle it will be fitted to, the luxury arm of Nissan, known as ‘Infiniti’, is due to arrive in Europe starting with Russia before 2008, so you never know…