Nissan Exhibits IEEE 1394-Compatible Car

Dirak writes "High-speed IEEE 1394 optical fiber networks have gone off-road with new Nissan's prototype vehicle demonstrated this year's at 11th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems. The prototype is equipped with 7 cameras on the body and a 12-inch LCD monitor in the front and another in the rear seat area. Thanks to the in-vehicle IEEE 1394 LAN, which is capable of high-speed communications at 400Mbps via optical cable, the front and the rear seat monitors can display various information simultaneously, for example. The application of optical fiber also means that the weight of the cables can be reduced to about one-half the weight of a conventional wiring harness."

Comments

Usefulness

[fembots]

I can already see some uses of this technology.

1. Sensor which alerts owners that their car tyre has been chalked (parking tickets).

2. Sensor to trigger water spray to remove any chalk marks

3. Monitor to checks all four wheels, when you feel/hear something weird, but don't want to stop your car.

4. Monitor to checks if your skirts is trapped between the door and slapping on the tarmac going 100mph.

5. Monitor to show your windscreen wiper spray tank level, so you know when to refill.

400 Mbps

[Planky]

The multimedia capabilities are made possible by the adoption of a high-speed 1394 optical fiber network communications system which allows a data transmission rate of 400 Mbps (mega- bites per second).

Thats some super speedy eating :D

GTA

[Thomas Henden]

Now, if you can get some more of these cars and play networked GTA with your friends...

$2 says...

[Indy Media Watch]

...You will get moderated down instead.

Isn't...

[Bug-Y2K]

FireWire a BUS, not a car?

sorry, couldn't resist.

Digital Cars... It's more than just cable weight.

[anon mouse-cow-aard]

Digital cars will be a great thing. It's not just flying car stuff, but basic, useful improvements every geek would love:

• Those big protrusions out the side of the car... you know, mirrors? Replace them with a pinhole sized camera in the high mounted brake light. Not only does it shave weight, but look at the air flow advantages.
• Put all the LED's in some central part of the car and just pipe the light out to the headlights and tail lights. Switch the signals centrally, so you can use less bulbs (light all three brake lights with a single (plus backup) LED, a single signal light, etc...) The mounting for the lights in the back is then much lighter, and there is no need to route copper power wires back there. Reduced, power, reduced components, reduced weight.
• Like the minivan rear-view cameras, improved visibility, no blind spots, given enough cameras.
• Use infrared cameras to improve night vision (assuming HUD display instead of LCD in dash.)
• The cameras are a prerequisite for the self-driving cars in the future (sensors for the computers)
• All digital dashboard (series of LCD's for the whole instrument panel.) Then you can have three camera views while backing up. and see the speedometer when going forward. This will also make it cheaper to have "sport gauges" and can have dozens of other sensors that just don't fit into a normal dash, but only show up on the displays when they have something important to share. (oil pressure, oil volume, oil temperature, oil viscosity, tire pressure, tire temperature, brake fluid level, coolant level, coolant pressure) All of that could be made much more cheaply.
• Instead of just "check engine" ... how about a dashboard that says: "um, excuse me, this is your engine, I'm running OK, but cylinder 4 has poor ignition, probably needs a new spark plug lead." or "Hi, you've cracked a cylinder head, kiss your wallet goodbye."