Nissan will unveil a new augmented reality connected driving system at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Called “Invisible-to-Visible” (I2V), the system connects each car’s sensor and display hardware to a larger data cloud. This allows your Nissan to not only detect its own surroundings, but those of every Nissan vehicle. Rather than using the data to guide an autonomous vehicle, I2V supports a human driver.
The I2V system taps into Nissan’s terrifyingly named “Omni-Sensing” hub. This gathers real-time data from both the car itself and the environment. The “Seamless Autonomous Mobility” tech — or SAM — analyzes the data and provides information back to the car’s ProPilot driver assist systems.
With the data to hand, the car can then display a virtual view of the whole space around the vehicle. It will advise the driver of things that are about to happen, such as a pedestrian looking to cross the road, or a parking space about to open up.
Connecting to the Omni-Sensing driving data cloud is an even more expansive virtual world Nissan calls Metaverse. This provides a more human experience in addition to the data.
Metaverse can, for example, call up someone with knowledge of the local area to provide you with tips and good ideas on places to go. They could also give driving knowledge to the I2V system that the sensors might not on pick up on, such as which roads to avoid when it gets wet, or if a route will become blocked for an event so you can park elsewhere.
Scarily, this person could appear in the car as an augmented reality avatar. In fact anyone who’s uploaded their data to the Metaverse could appear in the car in this way, whether it’s friends or family, or anyone else. Of course Nissan chooses to illustrate this in the video below with an anime girl…
Nissan will demonstrate I2V at its stand at CES in Las Vegas. Visitors can put on a set of AR goggles and receive a full tutorial on the system, right down to the anime navigator. There’s also the opportunity to chase a professional driver avatar to improve your driving skills.
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