Franklin, TN (Nov. 11, 2008) - Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced it will demonstrate its advanced "All-Around Collision Free" prototype vehicle - complete with two all-new accident avoidance technologies- at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). The ITS World Congress, to be held at New York City's Jacob K. Javits Center, from Nov. 16 - 20, showcases future vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications systems.
This is the first time the "All-Around Collision Free" prototype will be displayed in the United States and the world's first demonstration of Back-up Collision Prevention (BCP). The prototype also incorporates Side Collision Prevention (SCP) and two current production technologies, Distance Control Assist (DCA) and Lane Departure Prevention (LDP).
System Functions
System Configuration of Side Collision Prevention / Back-up Collision Prevention
The "All-Around Collision Free" prototype vehicle further extends Nissan's "Safety Shield" concept to help protect the vehicle and its occupants from potential risks coming from multiple directions. Following is a brief overview of the key systems:
Side Collision Prevention: As the vehicle begins to change lanes, side-mounted sensors activate a warning if another vehicle is detected in the intended lane. A yaw mechanism is then activated through brake control of individual wheels on the opposite side of the vehicle, to help prevent a potential collision by moving the vehicle toward the center of the original lane of travel.
Image of Side Collision Prevention Operation
Back-up Collision Prevention: During a backing maneuver, such as backing out of a parking space, rear and side-mounted sensors detect objects in the path of the vehicle. If an object is detected, an alarm sounds and then the brakes are activated to help avoid a collision.
Image of Back-up Collision Prevention Operation
Distance Control Assist and Lane Departure Prevention: Distance Control Assist (DCA) detects the distance to objects in front of the vehicle. When the vehicle is approaching an object, DCA will display a warning symbol, sound an alarm, and move the accelerator pedal up against the driver's foot. If the throttle is not being applied, DCA will gently apply the brakes to help encourage deceleration.
Lane Departure Prevention (LDP) assists with maintaining lane position by detecting lane markers and calculating position relative to them. If the vehicle approaches the lane markers, a warning illuminates and an alarm sounds. If the vehicle continues to travel toward the lane markers, the system activates the yaw mechanism (described in SCP above) to help move the vehicle toward the center of the lane.
Both the DCA and LDP systems complement the SCP and BCP to move toward an "All-Around Collision Free" prototype. These warning systems and preventive safety features are designed to help support the driver in an intuitive manner with minimal intervention.
About Nissan Safety Shield
As part of its commitment to continuously improve the safety of its vehicles, Nissan has developed and advanced many pre-crash and crash protection technologies. These innovations are part of Nissan's "Safety Shield" concept: an advanced, proactive approach to safety issues based on the idea that advanced technology in vehicles helps protect people. This approach provides various measures to help the driver and passengers better avoid dangers in ways that are optimized to each of a wide range of circumstances that the vehicle may be in, from "risk has not yet appeared" to "post-crash".
On a global level, Nissan is committed to building safe vehicles equipped with advanced safety technologies. In Japan, the company's safety vision is to halve the number of traffic fatalities or serious injuries involving Nissan vehicles by 2015 compared with the level in 1995.
About Nissan
In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010, whose key priorities are reducing CO2 emissions, cutting other emissions and increasing recycling. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com and www.infiniti.com.
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