Sure the V2G is imagined for use on electrified, gridded highways, but I keep picturing racing over abandoned fields and straight into sunsets while making vrrrrooom—vrroooom—eeeeek—vrrrrrrrrroom sounds. [The Design Blog]

When the the device is in one piece, you can control turns by shifting your weight, but when the sides are split up you're supposed to lift your feet and step around as if truly on stilts. Great, everything already look unstable and you want me to lift a foot without a nice soft pile of snow to fall face-first into?

Thankfully, neither Nissan nor the National Advanced Institute of Science and Technology appear to be in any rush to actually market this thing. [Plastic Pals via Engadget]

This is the Nissan Land Glider, an electric car with two seats. it has a narrow body, which Nissan says will help reduce traffic congestion by allowing more cars in the same city space, as well as making parking easier. It has a balancing system to make it stable as it takes curves, compensating for inertia with the car's body movement.

The winner, however, is that stunning cockpit equipped with flat color screens and joysticks with touch surfaces. I really hope it has lasers and anti-matter cannons built-in too.

Head to Pink Tentacle to see the rest of the prototypes at the Tokyo Motor Show. [Pink Tentacle]

The point? Well, Nissan has been been studying schools of fish and how they avoid colliding with each other while swimming. They have come up with similar technology and put it in these three-wheeled bots—seven of them can travel together and avoid crashes by using laser range finders which measures distance from one another. Then they, like a good family of fishies, share the info with each other. The hope is to bring that communication to the cars of the future. Frankly, I wouldn't mind if the cars of our future looked a bit more like these little guys too. [AFP]

Nissan's engineers were originally tasked to simply recreate the sound of an engine. But, says 30-year veteran noise and vibration expert, Toshiyuki Tabata:

"We decided that if we're going to do this, if we have to make sound, then we're going to make it beautiful and futuristic. We wanted something a bit different, something closer to the world of art."

The sound will kick in automatically when the car starts, and turn off at about 12mph (when tire noise is enough to warn pedestrians).

Of course, it's not the first time we've seen this sort of tech. Fisker Karma's electric car will use a similar system designed to sound "like something between a formula One car and a jet plane". That's cool and all, but I think I'd still take the Sci-Fi option. [Nissan via Bloomberg via LA Times]

Nissan's quick to separate its newest vehicle from the pack by detailing that the smiling face formed between the car's headlights isn't the only friendly thing about it:

Unlike internal-combustion engine (ICE) equipped vehicles, Nissan LEAF's power train has no tail pipe, and thus no emission of CO2 or other greenhouse gases. A combination of Nissan LEAF's regenerative braking system and innovative lithium-ion battery packs enables the car to deliver a driving range of more than 160km (100 miles) on one full charge.

Surprisingly, charging the LEAF doesn't take all eternity and you can be ready to go in less time than it takes to get a sunburn in the Florida sun:

Nissan LEAF can be charged up to 80% of its full capacity in just under 30 minutes with a quick charger. Charging at home through a 200V outlet is estimated to take approximately eight hours - ample time to enable an overnight refresh for consumer and car alike.

We'll know more about pricing of this zippy little thing as the LEAF gets closer to being on the market (around late 2010), but it's expected to qualify for an "array of significant local, regional and national tax breaks and incentives in markets around the world." Saving money and the environment? Maybe this eunuch of a car is worth it after all. [Nissan]

Nissan is slated to officially unveil three new EV cars next week, during which time the automaker may also announce a compatible prototype iPhone app. The app allows owners to not only detect information like remaining car battery power, but it provides useful additional data like how long the battery will take to recharge and how much said recharge will cost at various charging stations. Also, the app will allow wireless control of heat and A/C, which is kind of neat until shake to shuffle cranks the temperature to 110 in the middle of summer. [PCWorld via Left Lane News via MacNN]

Developed with the University of Tokyo, Nissan says that their new Forest AC air conditioning system "is designed to recreate the refreshing climate, fragrance and natural breezes of relaxing forest settings." How? Let's review:

• The system's Breezy Air feature actually creates a "natural breeze" effect by randomly changing the air volume through all vent outlets, according to external sunlight and external temperature. The system can change the air pattern in the breeze depending on which side of the car you are seated, increasing volume if you are seating on the sunny part or decreasing it if you are on the shade.

• The aroma control system is even more curious: The University of Tokyo's research team studied the effects of fragrances, air flow, and humidity in mental activity, concluding that two aromas can "alleviate boredom and stimulate the driver's brain": Borneol and leaf alcohol. According to Nissan, Borneol "combines a compound made from fragrant Kapur wood, lavender and other essential oils to promote calm and focus, while leaf alcohol is found in most plants and is thought to have a calming effect and reduce fatigue."

• Everything is combined with humidity control—which in theory keeps the car interior in perfect conditions—automatic outside and inside odor control—that will prove useful more than one time, I'm sure—and a plasmacluster ion generator... which may a) disintegrate you, b) teleport you to another place, c) "maintain cabin air quality, kill germs through strengthened bacteria deactivation and minimize odors clinging to the cabin air and interior surfaces," or d) all of the above.

I like option D, although right now I just want option B. [Autoblog via Ubergizmo]

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Since most popular keyless entry systems depend on radio raves (and have since the early 2000's, when they first rose to prominence) and likely won't be using the phone's includes radio, this pairing is less of a technological integration than a lets-strap-another-piece-of-hardware-on-a-phone. In any case, hackers, the obscenely rich and the Chinese have been doing stuff like this for a while now, so it's about time that this obvious path for convergence was taken. [NTT Docomo]

The North American model will not have the same functionality, but the speed limiter doesn't kick in until 156 mph, which is more than enough for the average suburban speed demon. Admittedly, it's a feature that a very small percentage of GT-R owners will actually use, but the idea of a satellite detecting your location and making engine adjustments is pretty damn cool (the dash control screen is still the coolest, however). [GT Channel]

CMOS chips have traditionally been great for still cameras, but analog master CCD has long ruled the video world. And CCD has traditionally been better in low light situations, especially. So why fix what's not broken? CMOS is cheap. Real cheap. And it's good to see the video being used in applications other than the surprisingly effective point 'n shoots with video.

And this Nissan system looks pretty neat, too. [fareastgizmos via gearfuse]

He keeps telling me the Corvette Z06 will kill it dead, and who am I to argue with a car meat head like Ray. But I still love this thing. A lot of that has to do with the instrument cluster, designed in conjunction with game-designers from the Playstation's Gran Turismo series, pushing a driver into stat and chart overload. A lot of that also has to do with the factory-spec's insane 480HP from a twin-turbo charged V6. Of course, getting that power to the ground for it's 3.5-second zero-to-sixty time takes a lot of rubber or a lot of technology, and in this case it has to do with an increasingly complex electronically-managed AWD system that in detailed function is one of the last remaining tech secrets of the car.

The front-mounted engine runs through a transaxle, which is a driveshaft, center differential, and transmission in one, with gears mounted rearward. This puts more weight in the back, giving the car a better balance, front to back. With me? The meat of the car's power generally goes to the back wheels (98% or 100% depending who you ask) until one of the 12 fore mentioned sensors which read "speed, lateral and transverse acceleration, steering angles, tire slip, yaw rate, etc" and another yaw sensor which amounts to math between the steering angle and the actual yaw rate (rotation around a center axis) to collectively detect what I like to call "Oh shit" moments. Where was I? Part of that includes moving the power distribution in the rear to up to 50 front and 50 back using a second drive shaft type system forward (up to 50:50). Wiki: "Unlike the previous ATTESA systems which relied heavily on mechanical feedback, the system in the GT-R uses electronic sensors and hydraulically actuated clutches." Alright, I'm confused as to how that works with the LSD from this Edmunds drive: "Exiting an uphill right-hander in 3rd gear, the 1.5-way limited-slip differential (which locks aggressively on acceleration but less so on lift-throttle) is briefly overwhelmed by my heavy right foot. The momentary wheelspin can be felt in the steering wheel, yet the traction available in the all-wheel-drive GT-R is prodigious." I'm at the limits of my knowledge and understanding, although by now, this post may have brought us both far to gone into Jalopnik land. I'm going to just think about driving it.

It's the only front-engine production AWD car to have this system of dual driveshafts, and although it seems complicated, this car is designed to pace a 911 turbo. You can't do that on motor alone.

And the car is $70k. Although it doesn't use batteries like a Prius or a Tesla, that's a lot of tech and power for the money. And possibly, tech-wise, it's even more sophisticated than throwing batteries and electrics under the hood. Sure wish I was an auto journalist now, but there's enough tech here to sink my gizmodo-teeth into. Again, humor me while I classify this a gadget.

Touching the car electrocutes you. A small amount of current is always needed to maintain the arrangement of iron oxide (your custom car color). So when you leave your car parked/off, the car turns white. Now imagine your white car times 5000 during your next IKEA excursion. Yeah, it'll be like Florida, everywhere you go.

CORRECTION: This is not Nissan technology, they merely viewed a demo. [nextenergynews]