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Nissan

robots

Nissan BR23C Bot Programmed To Avoid Attractive Women (and Other Obstacles)

As you can see in the video above, Nissan's Biomimetric Car Robot Drive, or BR23C, was designed to avoid collisions by steering clear of oncoming objects, even if, as in this case, the object is a slender, particularly leggy Japanese woman. The science involved in this brand of collision avoidance was derived from bees, which steer away from anything that intersects an oval-like safety zone in front of them. Bees use 300ยบ field of vision; the BR23C uses laser range finders. Though Nissan hopes to implement this in cars sometime soon, the slow-moving tech still has a ways to go. [CNet; Motor Trend]

keyless entry

Sharp Builds Wireless Electronic Car Keys into a Phone, Finally

In collaboration with Nissan and NTT Docomo, a Japanese mobile operator, Sharp has developed what they claim is the first mobile phone that also functions as a keyless entry and ignition device for cars. Rather than building a new system from the ground up, Sharp has simply opted to include Nissan's existing Intelligent Key technology in a phone. The system will function like any of the many other wireless keyfobs on the market today, authorizing the driver to enter, exit and start his or her car without ever poking any keys around. More »

suck on this lead foot

Nissan's Eco Gas Pedal Fights Back To Help You Save Gas

I'm all for exploring new technologies that help us save gas, but I think Nissan has gone a little too far with their "Eco Pedal." This new technology calculates the most fuel efficient rate of acceleration and then fights back against the driver's foot when it feels that rate has been exceeded. Nissan claims that the system can improve fuel efficiency by as much as 10 percent, which is why they plan on implementing it into their cars next year. As asinine and unsafe as all of this sounds, at least Nissan had the good sense to implement an on / off switch. [Detroit News via Jalopnik]

top gear

Top Gear Races Nissan GT-R Vs. Bullet Train In Japan

The Top Gear crew is in Japan for this week's episode and they've got another heated race for us: A Nissan GT-R R35, a gadget car by dynamic handling and Playstation inspired dashboard vs. a bullet train, running both from Japan's northern Hakui-Shi coast to Tokyo. With no surprise ol' Clarkson is driving the fiery beast while Hammond and May are left traveling Japanese public transportation. I'm not gonna spoil the race for ya though, but Jalopnik has the results for you. [Jalopnik]

fashion

Nissan Uses Old Suit To Build Cars, Score Early Bird Specials

To help its engineers better understand the challenges that the elderly have behind the wheel (and feed the fears of Japan's midlife crisis population), Nissan has developed an "old suit" simulating stiff movements, blurred vision, bad balance and extra weight (probably to simulate weaker strength). It all makes sense to us, save for the harsh generalization of the warp-around eyewear. Can't we get this engineer a pair of blurry contacts or something? Maybe some that give him a sexier eye color, even? It's already embarrassing enough to drive 25 in a 40 while soiling a diaper, trust us on this one. [reuters]

nissan gt-r

Nissan GT-R Detects When Car is on a Race Track, Disables Speed Limiter via GPS

It's no secret Giz loves the GT-R. We consider it the unofficial car of Gizmodo, actually. So imagine our collective giddiness when we heard that the Japanese model has a feature that uses GPS to detect when it's on a race track, prompting the Engine Control Unit to disable the speed limiter (which holds the engine at 111 mph in Japan). More »

video

Sony Using CMOS Camera For Cars, CMOS!

We're gonna go a little ubergeek on you for a moment and celebrate that Sony is using CMOS video cameras for Nissan's upcoming "around view monitor," a camera system giving you an overhead view of your car for parking and moments when you just want to look like OJ on the highway. These cameras grab 1.3MP at 30 frames per second. No, the specs aren't amazing. But here's why we're excited. More »

cars

Nissan's GT-R Data-Dense Dashboard Explained

Fast lane daily has a video of the Nissan GT-R, with rare footage of that amazing instrument cluster designed by Gran Turismo game designers. Fast forward past the talking head to witness footage of the boost gauge, lateral and longitudinal G-forces (over time!), among many other stats, at your fingertips. Might have been better to build this stuff into HUD, as you don't want to be staring at the digital cluster pack for longer than you need to in a 3-second car. [Fast Lane Daily, GT-R on Giz]

cars

Nissan GT-R My New Fav Geek Car


As car geek icons go, there's the Tesla, the Prius, and for me the Japanese Nissan GT-R supercar, which was unveiled at the LA Auto Show yesterday. Ray at Jalop calls it the GTR-Zilla, but I'll prematurely call it geek car of the coming year, lack of electric power be damned. I swear, this post gets gadgety somewhere through. More »

chameleon

Nissan Developing Color Changing Paint

Soon all soccer moms will be James Bonds, changing the color of their car with the flip of a switch. That's because Nissan is developing a paramagnetic iron oxide paint polymer. Using an electrical charge, the arrangement of iron oxide crystals can be tweaked, adjusting the car's color. (It just so happens that metal-bodied cars make for excellent conductive surfaces.) But we're really excited over Nissan's surely bogus but juicy claim to have the technology on the market extremely soon, by 2010 if possible. Oh...except there's one catch. More »