Say Cheese! Nissan sells 2 million car cameras, more than many camera manufacturers
- Increased technology fitted to its cars means Nissan now sells over 3,000 cameras per day
- Over 1.4 million cameras fitted to new Qashqai alone since the model’s launch in 2014
- Part of pioneering safety packages which form the building blocks to autonomous driving
It’s perhaps an indication of where things that are going in the car industry. Although obviously most famous for its range of cars, Nissan has announced it’s fast becoming one of Europe’s biggest camera companies too, having fitted over two million camera units to its range in less than two years!
Increased safety technology means that Nissan’s best-selling models now have up to five cameras per car with the crossover brands, which include Qashqai, Juke and X-Trail, accounting for over 1.9 million camera sales since the Qashqai went on sale in 2014. That’s an astonishing 3,400 cameras per day, or more than two per minute.
The top-selling versions of each of these vehicles have four wide-angle cameras attached to the front, back, left and right, which are the foundations of the pioneering Around View Monitor system. The AVM system can display a 360-degree, bird’s-eye view which helps the driver to visually confirm the vehicle’s position relative to white lines and other vehicles, allowing the driver to manoeuvre into parking spots with more ease.
The Qashqai and X-Trail also have an additional camera mounted in the windscreen which is used for a variety of high-tech functions, such as traffic sign recognition and automatically dipping main beam headlamps.
The camera systems fitted to Qashqai and X-Trail provide the capability for self-parking, along with a package of functions which make up Safety Shield, including Blind Spot Warning (BSW) and Moving Object Detection (MOD), all of which will be critical in the future development of autonomous drive.
One of the smartest features within Safety Shield is the intelligent self-cleaning rear view camera system, which even detects when it is dirty and automatically cleans itself. Mounted just above the rear number plate, the camera uses its in-built water and compressed air apparatus to clear the lens of debris ensuring the 7-inch NissanConnect screen receives a clear picture, providing optimum passenger and pedestrian safety.
“Unlike rival systems that rely on radar systems to monitor movement around the car, all three elements of Nissan’s Safety Shield work using data from the rear-view AVM camera providing drivers with exceptional visibility and protection,” says Safety Shield senior engineer Christopher Parker.
Engineers are already working on the next generation of camera technology, such as that seen in the Nissan Gripz concept Crossover. Here two cameras built into the headlamps allow live streaming of the car’s adventures – on and off road – to the internet.
