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Transportation Displays Social Networks

Nissan Creates the Ultimate Distracted Driving Machine 140

Posted by Soulskill from the autonomous-cars-can't-come-soon-enough dept.
jfruh writes: More and more research is suggesting that it isn't safe to text or even talk on our phones hands-free while driving, but one brave car company is pushing full-speed in the other direction. Nissan has created a concept car in which every surface, including the entire dashboard and even the seats, is a display device. The car is the result of "extensive" surveys with the younger generation that came to the conclusion that, according to Nissan, young people "feel that time spent in a car should be time for connecting and sharing experiences with friends."
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Nissan Creates the Ultimate Distracted Driving Machine More

Nissan Creates the Ultimate Distracted Driving Machine

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  • Woo, Now I can get even MORE distracted while driving.

    • Re: Selfies! (Score:5, Informative)

      by Fwipp ( 1473271 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @11:34AM (#50662369)

      The summary misleadingly forgot to mention that
      "The display function only works when the car is parked. In drive mode, all the driver can see are the various meters and controls necessary to drive the car and any maps that might be needed. "

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I really like the planning of the vehicle. Like the part were displays are on the backs of the chairs, but the chairs all turn inward to allow group communications.

        • According to the pictures, the chairs in the Nissan are quite solid and stationary (and without any sort of cushioning, apparently). The picture at the bottom of the article that shows the inward-facing seats is the Mercedes F015 [mercedes-benz.com].

      • "The display function only works when the car is parked. In drive mode, all the driver can see are the various meters and controls necessary to drive the car and any maps that might be needed . . . "

        . . . until you pay a local teenage hacker $20 to re-flash the firmware to enable the display all the time.

        What's wrong with kids and their parents talking with each other, and sharing experiences when out on a drive . . . ?

        • What's wrong with kids and their parents talking with each other, and sharing experiences when out on a drive . . . ?

          Because that would require actual human-to-human interaction, you sick bastard.

          Far better that we all be gazing lovingly into our New Shiny(tm) rather than actually be talking to people (ewwwwwwwww!)

          Why, the very thought makes my skin crawl, echhhh.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by gfxguy ( 98788 )
            Only subversives use methods of communication that cannot be filtered through government systems. So add talking in person to the list (along with paying in cash).

        • What's wrong with kids and their parents talking with each other, and sharing experiences when out on a drive . . . ?

          You'd have to forcibly remove their headphones and iToys for a start, and therefore have them sulk for the rest of the journey.

      • The summary misleadingly forgot to mention that "The display function only works when the car is parked. In drive mode, all the driver can see are the various meters and controls necessary to drive the car and any maps that might be needed. "

        Common F. Sense has a thought on this. The display will be one of the first things that gets hacked on this new UberHipsterMotoHicle.

        Of course, insurance companies will quickly follow suit with rates given the obscene death toll, but hey fuck safety for a YouTube minute, let's ask the fucking YOLO generation how to design a car. Yeah, that'll be safe for the rest of us, I'm sure.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        The summary misleadingly forgot to mention that
        "The display function only works when the car is parked. In drive mode, all the driver can see are the various meters and controls necessary to drive the car and any maps that might be needed. "

        So this means we'll have more people putting the car in P at the lights, getting distracted and not realising the light has gone green until someone a few cars down the line beeps them.

        Nissan, stop making gimmicks that will never be permitted on the road in most countries and give us what we've been asking for, for the last 15 years... The S16 Silvia (and possibly another turbo straight 6 whilst you're at it).

    • MOOT!!! No basis for your nattering in the least! This Nissan thingie is being developed only years after Tesla, Google, MB and others have been developing self-driving cars, meaning that by the time it is ready to put in real cars, those cars are likely to be self-driving, anyway, making all this bling of no importance re: road safety. The various teams developing this self-driving tech are in agreement on one thing: it will not be used by the general public until it can be shown to be ten times better

  • If you need entertainment. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Z00L00K ( 682162 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @11:30AM (#50662327) Homepage Journal

    If you need entertainment you aren't driving fast enough.

    • Re:If you need entertainment. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TWX ( 665546 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @12:29PM (#50662861)
      People have been debating the dangers of entertainment while driving since the first audio capabilities were added to cars.

      Any entertainment that takes away focus from the ability to drive and monitor the driving conditions is a problem. Most people don't seem to have a problem with the radio playing, music or news or talk radio doesn't seem to require attention that is normally focused on the road. Visual indicators do take away that attention though, and interactive means, even if just audio like making a handsfree phone call also take away that attention.

      Modern controls that require the operator to look to make a change or to navigate menus to make a change are a terrible idea.

      • Most people don't seem to have a problem with the radio playing, music or news or talk radio doesn't seem to require attention that is normally focused on the road.

        My completely uneducated guess on this one is that listening to the radio requires very little mental bandwidth. If you're listening to music that you hear frequently, your brain isn't doing any processing because you already know the song. For news or talk radio, your brain probably isn't spending the extra processing time needed to commit to memory anything that's said.

        In contrast, conversations with other people (whether on the phone or in the car with you) require enough processing for you to be able

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gfxguy ( 98788 )

          You're completely uneducated guess is correct - people's brains often tune out the radio when the road requires more attention. Radios are not problems unless some idiot is trying to impress the neighborhood with it instead of just listening happily to their own tunes, in which case they can no longer here emergency vehicles or even people honking at them to stop playing with the dial and go because the light turned green 10 seconds ago!

          You are absolutely right about having a conversation with someone in

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by spauldo ( 118058 )

            I only have my own experience (and those of other drivers I knew), but from what I can see, talking on a hands-free device isn't really dangerous, at least for an experienced driver.

            The part of your brain that makes you go straight down the road, alerts you to potential problems, and keeps track of traffic and obstacles around you isn't the same part of the brain that gets involved in a phone conversation.

            What does get affected:
            Ability to maintain a constant speed
            Ability to notice informational signs (i.e.

            • Driving down a highway or interstate is fine - you're just as alert to potential danger, because the part of your brain doing the driving kicks alerts up to the thinking part of your brain immediately when something happens. Cruise control will keep your speed steady, so no worries there. You will miss the occasional exit, though.

              Sorry, but if you're missing exists, then you are definitely not concentrating hard enough on driving.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by spauldo ( 118058 )

                There's a big difference between "miss the occasional exit" and "hit the occasional car."

                An experienced driver drives subconsciously. Watching for exit signs is a conscious thing.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      Real true this. It seems most people want a voyeuristic high, or at best one where most danger has been engineered out of the system. If I may plane the crotchety old person, kids these day. How can they have any fun building a computer if there is no real danger of getting electrocuted, or being burn by a soldering iron, or even being poked by a IC? I in now way think that anyone should drive dangerously, but in the right machine, well engineered, and able to travel at high speed, there is really nothin

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      If you need entertainment you aren't driving fast enough.

      But I found slammers have poor wi-fi

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

        I was just making a travesty on the following quote by Mario Andretti:

        If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.

  • Obligatory Farnsworth (Score:5, Funny)

    by HideyoshiJP ( 1392619 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @11:33AM (#50662353)
    I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

  • Self Driving Cars (Score:4, Informative)

    by tomkost ( 944194 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @11:35AM (#50662377)
    It's the only way this makes sense. Otherwise, it's death and lawsuits waiting to happen.

    • Re:Self Driving Cars (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ColdWetDog ( 752185 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @12:00PM (#50662593) Homepage

      No, what this really makes sense is as a self driving TAXI. You can be bombarded with ads until you reach your destination. In fact, if you haven't watched enough ads, the doors stay locked until you do.

      Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, where are you?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by unrtst ( 777550 )

      You're obviously one of the many that didn't look at the article.

      Sadly, the car looks awful and is nowhere near the "ultimate" distraction it could be. I expected some actual coverage of the dash, console, steering wheel, projected heads up display, etc. Instead, it's one of the most boring looking designs I've ever seen. The only innovative coverage was the seats.... but why in the world would they put displays on the only parts that are likely to be covered? They even put big rectangular white things on t

  • Obvious outcome (Score:3)

    by ADRA ( 37398 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @11:37AM (#50662389)

    1. More Distraction
    2. More Accidents
    3. More car buyers
    4. PROFIT!

    • Yes, PROFIT for Google. The bottom line is that driving is a boring time-pig. We've outgrown it. If a google-like car can automatically take us through our usual routes such that we can surf the Interwebs during that time, that's a great thing as far as I'm concerned.

      Let the robots do the grunt work!

  • This car is obviously designed to be self-driving. As such, it makes sense to add a ton of displays. If such a car gets built, it will almost certainly be designed to turn all displays into driving controls (speed, engine temperature, fuel, etc.) whenever manual control is activated.

  • Concept car == who cares? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Chelloveck ( 14643 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @11:41AM (#50662425)
    It's a concept car. It's a showpiece designed to attract attention and nothing else. Picking on it for being unrealistic is like picking on a fashion show because the dresses would never hold up to actual wear. That's not what they're meant for.

    • Re:Concept car == who cares? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Chris Mattern ( 191822 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @12:29PM (#50662859)

      I don't pick on fashion shows because the dresses wouldn't hold up to actual wear (although they wouldn't). I pick on fashion shows because the dresses are butt ugly. [wikimedia.org]

      (I didn't even have to work for this shot. It is literally the first image Google threw up for "Fashion show".)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

        I pick on fashion shows because the dresses are butt ugly. [wikimedia.org]

        (I didn't even have to work for this shot. It is literally the first image Google threw up for "Fashion show".)

        That looks like a promo shot for the Zoolander 2 movie they are making....Almost like a Derelicte Carnivale line.

        • Nope. That is a bona fide, you're-supposed-to-keep-a-straight-face-somehow, fashion show. Moscow, 2007. Designer's name is Slava Zaitsev.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Alumoi ( 1321661 )

        Damn it, man! You could have linked to goatse, it would have been less disturbing.

  • ...young people "feel that time spent in a car should be time for connecting and sharing experiences with friends."...

    When they see their insurance rates skyrocket due to all the accidents they cause, the "young people" surveyed may come to a different conclusion. (and I'm not even going to mention the number of innocent people who are killed due to these distracted drivers. OK, I did mention it.)

  • Best Use of Displays (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SydShamino ( 547793 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @11:42AM (#50662435)

    Once they are hacked to work while the vehicle is in motion, mount cameras on the front and bottom of car and display real-time onto dash and seats. You can pretend you're hovering!

  • The car is the result of "extensive" surveys with the younger generation that came to the conclusion that, according to Nissan, young people "feel that time spent in a car should be time for connecting and sharing experiences with friends."

    When all you're doing is sharing and connecting, when do you have time for experiencing?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by suutar ( 1860506 )

      while you're not in motion, I suppose. Which means missing some beautiful landscapes... but also some really boring timesinks (west texas on I-10 comes to mind...)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by spauldo ( 118058 )

        Funny, that's the only part of Texas I like. Don't drive 380 - I imagine it'd be even worse from your perspective. The Guadalupe mountains are really cool, though.

        (Of course, my main problem with Texas is all the Texans. The driving culture there is horrible. I10 out in the horn doesn't have as much traffic, so it's a nicer drive from my perspective.)

        If I had to pick a boring area of Texas, I'd say I40 through the panhandle. That place is so flat is makes Kansas look like Colorado.

    • Only old people experience directly. Unmediated experiences are boring. How can you properly appreciate what you're experiencing unless 5000 of your closest friends are telling you?
  • Sadly I expect the others to follow. I want a car with less crap in it, not more. I want a car with a good radio (AM, FM, aux in, USB, weather band) and that is about it for the infotainment system. If they have to put in a fucking screen (since everyone is doing the backup camera thing and I hare rumors of wanting to make it mandatory) then give me the option to use that screen to display all of the diagnostic info the car pukes out instead of needing some special vendor specific tool beyond just a bog st

    • Backup cameras should be mandatory...

      That being said, the sat nav systems are a pile of crap, we all know that... Give me a Google maps interface with a capacitive touchscreen and that's a good start.

      I'd love to be able to talk to my car, if it was decent at it. Siri and Cortana understand me amazingly well, my truck, less so.

  • It's like Nissan created Reggie's dream car from "Fuck Shit Stack"

    I like to take a flat-panel display monitor
    Put one on the steering column
    One inside of the glovebox
    One on top of the dashboard
    Two in back of the headrests
    One mounted in the ceiling
    Two still in the motherfucking packaging, on the back seat
    So when my motherfucking friends go and sit on the shit and break it (word?)
    I can honestly say:

    I. Just. Don't. Give. A. Fuck

  • Huh? (Score:3)

    by dyslexicbunny ( 940925 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @11:56AM (#50662561)

    Time in my car is spent going from A to B. Any other idea is just stupid.

    You want a concept car? Give me one that drives itself everywhere and gets good mileage whether it be gas or electric. If I want to connect or share experiences, I have devices already capable of doing it.

    • Remember the 'concept cars' of years ago? All sleek and shiny and completely impractical. The closest you ever saw to them on the road was the Batmobile.

      Same here. Not designed to be even remotely practical. They're fun experiments and advertising bits. They also serve as conceptual trial balloons to gauge broad acceptance.

      Does anybody think that future cars won't have lots of display panels and cameras? Smile for the camera!

      (As an aside, how would you make out with your girlfriend (or whatever) in on

      • (As an aside, how would you make out with your girlfriend (or whatever) in one of these things? Do younger people still do that or do they just fuck in their bedrooms? Did I miss it, again?)

        This happens over facetime or skype if your dirty.

      • Does anybody think that future cars won't have lots of display panels and cameras? Smile for the camera!

        Absolutely. I want a recording camera forward, aft, and some hidden ones in the rear view mirrors.

        But sharing them on Instagram? Hell no! They are there to collect evidence.

        As for display panels - we tried that once. one light goes out, and it's 20 percent of the value of the car to repair it.

      • (As an aside, how would you make out with your girlfriend (or whatever) in one of these things? Do younger people still do that or do they just fuck in their bedrooms? Did I miss it, again?)

        Boy did you pick the wrong forum to ask that question.

  • More and more research is suggesting that it isn't safe to text or even talk on our phones hands-free while driving,

    No it isn't. Plenty of research is showing that driving distracted can lead to worse driving, but there is no data to suggest that this is leading to more accidents. This is basic statistics. If you want to show talking on phones hands free while driving is contributing to accidents, you need to compare the four cases {distracted, not-distracted}X{journey-completed-without-accident, journey-ended-with-accident} over many journeys randomly selected from the population of all journeys.

    The so call 'research' i

    • Hmm. Modded down for pointing out basic statistics. Perhaps people want reality to line up with their received wisdom.

    • I've owned plenty of cars since 1984 prior to cell phones being common {within the past 15 years} I never had a car hit while parked I am now up to six times, three I know where texting and three hit and runs. One I believe was a drunk driver because it happened about 30 minutes after the bar closed and they drove across the neighbors lawn prior to hitting the car then backed up into the neighbors house. The other two happened during the day and I'm guessing they were texting.

      Plus a woman rear ending me at

      • I had one come thru my front fence. Suburban road, no bends, 50km/h speed limit, still not sure how she did it?
  • Every time I am nearly run off the road it is usually 40-something soccer mom in a minivan full of screaming kids, checking her facebook while eating and appying makeup at the same time. Young people usually take a bus, since none of them have a job that could afford them pay young people insurance rates.

    • young people insurance rates

      Insurance rates are a better indicator of risk than anecdotes. What they show is that inexperience and the "arrogance of youth" is deadly on the roads. Australian stats show that the day a kid drops the 'L' plates and goes solo the risk of them causing an accident goes up 50X (5000%) and stays that high for the first six months. I taught both my kids to drive in an empty car park. Having attempted to teach my son to drive on the road, my advice is to hire a professional who has a brake pedal on their side o

  • Taxis and busses are already covered in ads, and some of them are now animated. With its solid (i.e., easy to scrub down), this car seems like it's ready made to be a taxi.

    • That makes a lot of sense, here on Oz it used to be that every taxi was a Ford, this is because Ford made a special "hose down" model, rubber instead of carpet, optional front bench seat for one more passenger, factory fitted LPG, etc. Not sure if they still do that, there are now more non-Ford taxis on the road but the vast majority are still late model Fords. Also interesting to note that Nissan and Ford are buddies, (circa late 80's) a Ford "Maverick" was the same car as the Nissan "Pajero" without the f

  • The car is the result of "extensive" surveys with the younger generation that came to the conclusion that, according to Nissan, young people "feel that time spent in a car should be time for connecting and sharing experiences with friends."

    No, it shouldn't! It should be a time for concentrating on driving. What the fuck is wrong with you???

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by godrik ( 1287354 )

      Any chance they were assuming they were not the driver?
      When my son is in the car, he spends his time either talking with me, or with the world through his phone.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by vux984 ( 928602 )

        This. Mod up.

      • Even if they were assuming they weren't the driver, why does this require a screen? The best way to connect and share experiences with friends is to use the car to pick them up and go do something.

    • They're too used to get tons of attention from Helicopter parents and always getting a trophy just for participating and think the world revolves around them.

      If they only killed/maimed themselves that'd be just fine, but they hurt others with their narcissistic stupidity...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jjbenz ( 581536 )
      Can't agree more.

  • Do a little profiling during the daily commute. If I see a "young person" behind the wheel of a Nissan, give them a wide berth as they're likely to be causing an accident any moment.

    (WTF was Nissan's design team thinking? Were they even?)

  • It's a beautiful world out there. Look out the goddamned window millennials.

    Your friends can wait to learn that your balls are itchy, or to ruin rour life via Twitter.

    • It's a beautiful world out there. Look out the goddamned window millennials.

      Your friends can wait to learn that your balls are itchy, or to ruin rour life via Twitter.

      Opps, looks like I insulted a millenial. But seriously, for the generation that was raised where on on family trips where you would tour through the Grand Canyon, or Mount Rushmore, with your parents watching the scenery, while you were in the back of the van watching Spongebob SquarePants on the DVD player - try it. There's a whole world out there that isn't on an LCD screen. And it's pretty darn cool.

  • ...is a few multi-million dollar judgements against the drivers and Nissan plus plenty of jail time should fix this problem...

  • There seems to be no shortage of idiots looking at their phone when they should be paying attention to their driving. It isn't the end of the world if you can't check your phone for a short period of time.

  • Reminds me of the Saturday Night Live Paradox (Score:4, Funny)

    by GoodNewsJimDotCom ( 2244874 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @12:57PM (#50663121)
    Announcer: Can a single luxury car be both the most spacious and the most compact on the market? Lexon asks you to consider a paradox.

    Female Voiceover: Paradox..

    Announcer: Introducing the all-new Lexon Paradox. Smaller than the competition, yet bigger.

    Female Voiceover: We are through the looking glass..

    [ show two groups of Lexon engineers standing on opposite sides of the screen ]

    Announcer: This remarkable automobile is the synthesis of the work of two teams of Lexon engineers. Team A was asked to decrease the size of Lexon's most popular model.. while Team B searched for ways to make it bigger.

    Announcer: While one team made Paradox the most expensive car in the world.. another made it the most affordable.

    Announcer: One designed the Paradox to be an elegant, white luxury Sedan.

    Female Voiceover: White Sedan..

    Announcer: The others, a sporty red Coupe.

    Female Voiceover: Red Coupe..

    Announcer: One team gave it incredible stopping power.. the other gave it no brakes of any kind.

    Announcer: One team was asked to give the Paradox four doors.. another designed it to have only two.. while still another gave it six doors.. and the final team, one gigantic all-purpose door.

    Female Voiceover: One.. big.. door..

    Announcer: And, while one team gave the Paradox dual airbags.. another designed it to shatter on impact, throwing passengers up to 300 yards.

    Female Voiceover: Very, very dangerous..

    Announcer: The new Paradox. The best car money can buy.

    Female Voiceover: Or is it.. the worst?

  • Nissan does silly marketing gimmick, and it works.

  • Does this remind anyone else of the Wall-E chairs [mergy.org]? Maybe this is BnL's first prototype?

    What happened to down time, to just relax and ponder things quietly? I miss down time, like the quiet before movies with boring classical music and still ads on the the screen. I miss the timeouts at sporting events that didn't have every second filled with shiny screen and blaring music. I miss conversations in rooms where over half of the occupants in a room are not holding a screen in front of them. The simple things i

  • It still has a set of driving controls - it would be fine as an autonomous car.

  • Why not ask average drivers what they want from a car?

    I'm sure you'll get some great results from that [wikia.com].

  • Nooooooooo (Score:3)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Monday October 05, 2015 @04:08PM (#50664595) Journal

    Maybe I'm just old and cranky*, but I would hate the living shit out of this if I was a passenger or a driver.

    Honestly, this thing should be marketed as "The Ultimate ADHD Inducer".

    "Hey kids! Feel like you can focus on things for too long? Thanks to our advanced technology vehicle, we have the solution!
    Just spend 24 hours in our Mobile ADHD-O-Matic and never again will you be plagued by long, useful attention spans!
    Just one short exposure, and you too can have the long term memory of a goldfish! Never be forced to concentrate on anything ever again!
    Another fine product brought to you by RonCo(tm), makers of.... HEY LOOK A SQUIRREL!

    * Okay, so there's no "maybe" about it, but still...

  • Or am I the only one to think that?

  • You know that line about "the customer is always right"?

    well, sometimes the customer is just fucking wrong. and a moron.

  • I just want my phone to call people. I just want my car to go. I want my refrigerator to be cold inside. I want my computer to communicate via email, www, viewing YouTube, online shopping other bullshit, and sometimes to actually compute shit. Why can't things just do what they are for instead of all sorts of other stuff?

    I do not want a beer can refrigeration compartment on my phone, a TV in my car, an internet connection on my refrigerator, or my computer to have an engine, wheels, and able to take me

  • on our phones hands-free while driving and talking to someone that is in the same car? I see the risk as the same

    • I don't know, but studies have shown it's worse. Maybe because you have to put more effort into hearing/talking over background noise?
  • Riding in a car as a passenger might be a good time to talk to your friends and "share experiences", but when you're behind the wheel it's time to drive and NOTHING ELSE.

    Who are the bigger idiots here, Nissan or "young people"?

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