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Nissan and Microsoft Create Videogame Car
pnewhook writes "The Register reports that Microsoft and Nissan have created the first integrated gaming system within a vehicle. Not just in the vehicle, but the vehicle becomes part of the gaming system. From the article: "Conceived by Nissan Design America Inc. (NDA) and equipped with the Xbox 360 next-generation video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the Nissan URGE concept car allows drivers (while parked) to play 'Project Gotham Racing 3' using the car's own steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal while viewing the game on a flip-down seven-inch LCD screen," Nissan and Microsoft said in a statement."
I probably shouldn't admit this. In my 1999 Subaru RS (now long sold, unfortunately, it was my favorite car) I had a Pioneer flip-out LCD screen (about 7" widescreen format). I modified a Sega Dreamcast to run off 12V DC (no inverter), and I made a Dreamcast controller port above the steering column.
I never played while driving, err, never much, that is. It wasn't hard to avoid the "no screen while driving" safety feature. My girlfriend (who later I married) forced me to rip it out, as I had always tempted fate. Hey, I was only 25 years old!
To get to the topic, I'm not sure how much I trust any safety features they might embed in the car to prevent someone from finding a really wide open piece of tarmac and actually playing while driving. In fact, I don't even trust MYSELF to try it. How much is the car, again?
By the way, it was really awesome driving an RS while playing as an older WRX on the mini screen. I never caused an accident, but I did get a lot of honked horns. And they say men are safer drivers over once they hit 25?
I wouldn't like to play in one of those only to find out I couldn't start the car 10 minutes later because the XBox ran the battery flat.
(unless it was someone else's car of course)
Now I can finally make a fool of myself in public by playing a driving game when I should be speaking to the police officer knocking on the window!
Well, at LEAST these vehicle crashes won't make for fatalities... I HOPE!
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I can't think of any other word to describe this.
Don't worry: cops will still be more worried about you talking on your cell phone while driving. Quick game of GTA anyone?
hi mom!
Popular science did a cool article where they had pro racers race in Forza motorsport, and then on the actual track.
The consensus was that it's easier to take corners at speed in the game because there's a lower penalty for crash.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
...is some kind of of display built into the windscreen and side windows...
the Nissan URGE concept car allows drivers (while parked) to play 'Project Gotham Racing 3'
Based on my own experiences and stories I read here of people playing games too long, this can be very dangerous for people who just stopped parking...
bash$
What happens when a child decides to play the car game by themselves ?
Seems like lawsuit heaven in the making.
Before GTA was big, I thought it would be fun to make a game where you're robbing banks and running away with loot. You have the wheelman, and the other 3 people in the car have weapons. All the windows are screens you can shoot out of. But its like anything else... If you don't have a corporation behind you backing your idea, it never flies.
God spoke to me.
This is so dangerous. People who play good racing games and leave to take their car, will so quickly think they are back in their game and speed up. This has happenend to a good friend of mine. Never had a speeding ticket... plays one long session of Gotham racing. Heads home... and get's his driving license suspended due to his speed.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...The system crashes. Do your airbags go off at the sight of a BSoD?
Except for now, it's still in the 'concept stage' (meaning I have to imagine I am playing GTA under Linux). A few more tweaks, and I'll have it.
What happens to reindeer the day after Christmas
I mean come on, Nissan and xBox 360? This will never fly with the 16-30yr old Asian male demographic. //end sarc()
Wow, exactly what I need! You can hack it so that every person/object you hit you can increase your score.
Sure! Just drive at 100mph head on into a blue wall!
Now you know how a PC running Windows 98 feels.
"Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman
...WHERE'S MY XBOX 360?
I think we know where at least some of the shipments went...
Grrrr.. Still waiting for mine...
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
I hope the game won't run if the engine is on. Otherwise people might play it in the garage with the engine running and the car in park, and end up asphyxiating themselves.
They'd acuse the makers of trying to entice real-world drivers to speed, by supplying them with a "photorealistic" race experience through real world streets, which then entice the driver to perform along the same streets (as in the articles New York example.)
In Australia (home country warning) it's against advertising regulations to sells cars by showing how fast/aggressive they can drive. (Which is common-sense as you can never legally drive them like that on our bodgey streets.)
They sent Clarkson round Laguna Seca in an NSX on Gran Turisimo 4 then sent him off to see if he could get the same time in the same car on the actual track.
He couldn't... its too scary in real life.
Don't forget the ultra-rare Hi-Saturn Navi. I would think it pre-dates this by quite a bit.
...(at least the summary anyway). How fucking stupid are you people? Nissan URGE concept car, it was even in the summary. This means Nissan is pushing the boundaries of what a car is but doing so in a completly experimental environment. This will never see the light of day as is but who knows what sort of interactivity it may produce in the future?
Does it have any sort of force feedback? Fullseat rumble would be pretty cool.
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
"Nissan conducted an Internet survey of 2,000 echo boomers, a majority of which said technology and gaming are among the most important attributes in their first car," said Bruce Campbell, vice president of design at Nissan Design America.
Holy crap! Bruce Cambell is the vice president of design at Nissan TOO!?!?! This is my BOOMSTICK!, indeed!
hi mom!
Who is this aimed at? How can pay a few hundred extra dollars to add this to their car? Wouldn't the kind of people this is marketed towards mostly be driving second hand cars (or at least cheap ones?). I mean, no offense, anyone with the cash to shell out for this would likely feel a level of social stigma about having a videogame system in his car.
If this were for sale for real, I'd say it was asking for a lawsuit.
Think Deeply.
Seriously, what the hell does this have to do with anything other than stroking your own personal ego?
ShortFormBlog: Writing a little. Saying a lot.
Now it might just be me, but when I'm driving I barely have the attention to drink my coffee, talk on the cellphone and shave in the rearview mirror.
I'm not sure I could devote proper attention to PGR3.
Of course, you never know until you try.
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
That sounds scary! You'd hope during driving a glitch doesn't switch from real driving mode the Xbox mode... :}
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
So, now I can get a blue screen of death while stuck in traffic on the 405
Even if your car won't move, you probably won't notice for a few hours.
Tweet, tweet.
OMG still no jokes about playing carmageddon while driving? :P
Huh? What the fuck are you talking about in your post? Your post makes almost no sense. The only acrynomn you are missing is WTF.
There is no question to why your submission hasn't been accepted.
Realizing I was more than likely going to cause an accident I took a moment to recompose myself for the real world and went on my merry way. But for a second there I was definitely a danger to myself and others.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
(btw -- where does /. get its color schemes -- somethingawful?!)
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for slashdot.sig (129323052 bytes).
Oh no, its coming true.
If Microsoft made cars:
1. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to
buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason,
and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause
your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would
have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought
"Car95" or "CarNT." But then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable,
five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run
on five per cent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be
replaced by a single "general car default" warning light.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
9. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out
and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the
door handle, turned the key, and grab hold of the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of
Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they
neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option
would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or
more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the
Justice Department.
12. Everytime GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn
how to drive all over again because none of the controls would
operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine.
Sure! Just drive at 100mph head on into a blue wall!
Hey, not an issue. With that 1 Kilowatt power supply installed, we all know what happens when you hit 88.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
That copy of the Monopoly "get out of jail free" card in the car's glove box? That was the EULA.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
The engine stalls unless you hang the battery from the hood with string.
I work in the R&D division of a major Japanese video game corporation. Some members of my research group have been working with major Japanese automakers (whose identity I am not at liberty to discuss at the moment) to apply concepts learned in video game design to driving cars. Instead of a cumbersome set of multiple controls, we are experimenting with a single two-axis controller, one axis controlling acceleration and braking in the up-down direction, and the other controlling steering in the left-right direction. Gear shifting is mapped to the start and select buttons. We're experimenting with a number of control devices, from the Power Glove to GameCube controllers as input effectors.
We believe that this research will lead to much more drivable and intuitively controllable autos, especially for a generation of drivers raised on video games, and will cause fewer accidents on the road, due to the intuitive nature of the control mechanisms and the ingrained neurological psycho-response actuations which have developed from extensive game playing. It will further open up driving to those who may not have all limbs working, but as long as one has thumb control, driving will be accessible to all. I look forward to seeing this coming revolution on the commericial market.
-- Samir Gupta, Ph. D. Head, New Technology Research Group, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
This is a cool car to have if you love racing/driving games, because you've got a car that you'd need to have anyway, plus the most awesome driving game controller. I don't know about you, but a wheel clamped to my desk and a block with pedals on it while sitting in a swivel chair doesn't quite do it. Here you totally feel like being in a car because you really are in one. Next thing to do with this would be to have it so the windows could actually go opaque with a 360 display of the game environment. Maybe it could watch your head move too, and adjust the view accordingly, to give the illusion of depth more realism...
I see a major problem with this scenario though. If the game's physics allow a handicap for lesser driving skill, you could get yourself into trouble with muscle memory. Game on. You're in your car, experiencing speeding down a winding mountain road, pulling sharp curves at high speed and everything's going just fine. You used to crash a lot on this course but you've got it down now, good. Turn off the game, all you've done is switched perceptions of realities. You start driving again, but now real physics are involved. You're still at the same set of controls. You've 'learned' what those controls can do, everything still feels the same way to you in most ways. You feel that you 'know' what this vehicle is capable of. This is potentially a huge problem. A shame, because it would be so cool to have a car like that.
The game would have to strive to be as realistic as possible, tied into what that car is really capable of, tire wear and all, anticipating every possible stress and vector and appropriate consequences, with no 'beginner' setting of any kind. Otherwise you'd safely be able to learn some pretty dangerous habits.
Nintendo and Acme Sex Toys have scheduled a press conference for tomorrow, but are keeping hush-hush about their joint hardware/gaming venture, except to confirm that it would likely be rated "A" (for adults only).
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
blue screen on the dashboard!
google.slashdot
Look! It's another example of Microsoft innovating.
Instead of finding a way to get the car to the desk they took the desk to the car. That's just... typical!
Why would you trust a testimonial when choosing hosting?
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
The goal is to make a split second decision on how to t-bone someone. So I play for many hours, and on the drive home I almost make a decision to drive into this guy backing out of his driveway. Threeeeee-Sixtay!
God spoke to me.
welcome our preteen backseat driver overlords... is this gonna make my insurance go up?
The Nissan 350Z that I'm working with right now allows me to read the steering wheel position, brake pedal pressure, and gas pedal position in realtime via the diagnostics port. In fact.. you can even purchase the software to do it yourself! *plug* *plug* :) http://www.uprev.com/products/cipher_z_g.html
;)
Converting this into controller input as a USB hid device or PS2 controller input would be trivial... in fact I'm tempted to go and try and get Gran Turismo running on it... I'll put a projector out in the garage
Would anyone actually use this if I provided some schematics/software?
FYI: I believe the car must be equipped with the VDC (Vehicle Dynamic Control)
in order to have a steering wheel position sensor that can be read from.
Rats would be more funny if they could fart.
as long as they're spending the $$$ to put a game system in the car, why not just add to the realism and make the entire windshield into an LCD panel
This really doesn't impress me. A 7" LCD is all you get to look at while you play? When I read the title the first thing that came to mind was a giant screen filling the windshield, the rear window, modified rear-view mirrors, the works.
That would impress me, this doesn't.
Every pedestrian you hit gives you 10 points.
Hmmm, that's weird, the XBox360 is turned off, where are those pedestrians coming from?
eom
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
Does this mean that the guy from GM was a prophet?
Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke.
...was the backseat. Of course the flip down LCD could be used for other entertainment I suppose---Allll Right Giggity giggity
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
The article wasn't about me, you fucking asshole.
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
Yes, pedal to the floor turning into a banked turn when suddenly the car decides to use that as actual input and your garage gets screwed..
I know, engine would have to start and all and thus this scenario is less likely to proceed all the way through without driver notice, but a fun thought.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I am a firm believer human's ability to understanding the difference between pretend and real, but this would be a little like playing with an unloaded gun.
Lucky its only PGR3 and not Grand Theft Auto 3!
----- Concentrate on promoting more than demoting.
Now you can play Burnout 3 in your car AND on the road simultaneously. A lifelong desire fullfilled.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Somewhere online this very idea was being discussed years ago and someone made a comment like "It's all fun and games until you think you're playing Grand Theft Auto but you really just killed 4 pedestrians." Damn, I wish I could find the original quote.
-- Old Man Kensey
What about a car with a LCD screen that was hooked up to a camera behind the car? And instead of using the steering wheel, you control the car with a PS2 controller? How cool would that be? You'd be able to change the view to see behind the car and everything!
So extremely cool, yet so supremely stupid. What splendid dichotomies this varied world provides!
This is something that most geeks would think quite cool, but because Microsoft is involved, this thread is filled with negative comments. Oh, it's too dangerous!! Good grief...
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
You're gonna think this is a bad dea the first time you're at a long red light and the guy in front of you switches off the car, and switches on the game. Some people are so self important that I don't think it's a stretch to imagine someone saying to himself "oh, they can sit there for another minute or so, I'm on the last lap" or some obnoxiousness.
I've never played "Project Gotham Racing 3". Does it provide force feedback which gives the player the perception of the shards remaining of their driver's side window entering their teeth as a result of its' interaction with my U-lock as I ride by anyone gaming while operating an internal combustion weapon on the street? The empire may want to implement virtual and/or actual U-lock/window collision detection.
somebody bent my whookey.
Could you get a DUI for playing video games in your car while drunk?
If I'm not mistaken, sitting in a turned off car and using the gas is going to lead to a seriously flooded engine. Nice when mommy comes back from the grocery store to find her kid has stalled out the car by playing the xbox360!
Gas break honk. Gas break honk. Honk honk punch. Gas gas gas.
-HS
'while parked' only huh?
The developers better make sure it is impossible to play the game whilst driving. If someone is killed or injured by someone driving a car fitted with this, lawyer heaven - the developers better take out some damn good liability insurance.
I've never found that ABS feels any different, right up to the point where it actually starts to do some work. One thing I have been caught out by is ABS units that don't require a vacuum servo - all the braking assistance is done by an electric pump on the ABS unit. When you're towing a car with that kind of ABS unit, you get just as good brakes as if the engine was running. Great for snapping towropes.
You're posting retarded just-about-spam messages...about spamming.
Way to fucking go, dipshit.
Blessed be the gasoline. I think this is just a sign of things to come. In the future, the term "hybrid" car will mean something very different than it does today. We will merge with our cars. No more uncomfortable seats and lack of legroom. No clumsy user interfaces like steering wheels. We will become the car. Who needs bipedal motion when you can get a V8? Sex will involve simply docking in the car-hole.
... and then they built the supercollider.
It's "while" not "whilst!" Saying "whilst" makes you sound like a pedantic fool.
The Xbox 360 pulls 160 Watts of power: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=4 66036. The average car (or deep cycle, which would be a good idea for this use) battery fully charges at 100 amp hours, providing 12V. Which is 1200 Watt Hours.
Therefore your Xbox 360 will run for 7.5 hours just on battery charge.
Looking at an in car LCD screen, http://www.xenarc.com/product/700y.html 8 Watts seems reasonable for an LCD screen. This brings operating time down to about 7 hours.
Assuming that 200 Watt Hours would want to be left in the car as a way to start it and provide heating etc, that gives us 1000 Watt Hours to power the Xbox and about 6 hours of game play.
God help the condition of the battery if they don't use a deep cycle battery but it could work.
-
Peter
I worked at a drive-in theater when the movie Vanishing Point was new (yes, I'm a geezer).
When most movies let out, folks drove out slowly. When Vanishing Point was over there must have been half a ton of gravel in the air as people spun tires getting out of there.
I'll bet the local cops wrote a lot of speeding tickets that week.
Botton line: you're right. I hope they never actually produce one of those things; there must be some incredibly stupid, selfish people at Nissan (we all know about Microsoft...)
You post something obviously offtopic, and the first sentence in your post reads "I know I'll be modded off topic for this...", and then you get angry when people mod your post as Off Topic? Nice.
I'm posting this as AC only because I've already modded other posts on this story.
my car over heated damnit.... oh wait nop it was only the Xbox... i cant wait till people complain it drains their battarie too fast also
(yes i know i suck at spelling fell free to correct my grammar and/or spellin i dont care, im still not going to change
This has nothing to do with safety. It is because the heat of the running car would otherwise cause your 360 to melt and crash.
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
This isn't new at all.
No physical connection between the pedal and the brake.. Nothing could possibly go wrong
--- Dan
Are there any approved fly-by-wire car systems today? Even if my power steering, power brakes, and other goodies go out on a modern car, the mechanical linkages still work, providing a high degree of safety that wouldn't be present in a pure fly-by-wire system.
I'm surprised such a thing can be legal.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Who the hell would say that "Gaming" is an important attribute in their first car? That's like saying that "aerodynamics" is an important attribute of your next video game.
I know how one can go through PS2 controllers, and while your car hardware MAY be more sturdy than that, how much wear are you going to put on things playing Burnout 3 on your Nisson?
Video games have been available for cars in Japan for years now, unless the short clips on TV mislead me as to its the popularity there. They're sometimes stuck in traffic for hours each day, so it does make some sense I guess.
Anyway. If Nissan are sharing a joint vision with MS now, then I can scratch them from the list of companies I'll buy from.
Actually, this drive-by-wire thing is in trouble. Mercedes Benz anounced it would stop building Mercs with it's brake-by-wire system, as people didn't like them and didn't trust them.
The problem is, drive-by-wire controls, for them to be safe, should have redundancy. That redudancy makes them an expensive option and the benefit gained is minimal.
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
just close all the windows, turn off the car, start it back up, and open the windows again. That should fix ya.
The first "fully integrated gaming system within a vehicle" ... The Nissan URGE concept car allows drivers (while parked) to play 'Project Gotham Racing 3' using the car's own steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal while viewing the game on a flip-down seven-inch LCD screen.
It's been done. Google for Namco's Ridge Racer Full Scale. This arcade game played Ridge Racer on a triple-wide projection screen and had its steering, gas, brake, clutch, and gearshift connected to a Mazda Miata. Braking in the game even lit up the car's brakelights.
One seems to forget that no real car will ever be steered by wire. It is a concept that simply doesn't work in practice. The reason is, to regain the safety of mechanical steering, four (4) independent actors with 2 x 2 indepentent power sources would be needed. This is not a thing that matters much in jet airplanes, simply because of their dimensions, but which is definitely impractical in a car. Even for Lorries, it's too much, also because it simply isn't necessary. The forces one has to handle when flying an A-329 are huge. But even a 35 ton Lorry could theoretically steered without servo support. And luckily, whenever the servo fails, it remains steerable. Good old mechanics simply work and are the fundament of all technical security execept in computing. Low tech rules. P.S. the point here is, that without SBW, one couldn't practically use the steering wheel as an input device.
A car with something more dangerous inside than a cell phone or a drunk driver!
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.