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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 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.
Don't forget the ultra-rare Hi-Saturn Navi. I would think it pre-dates this by quite a bit.
I don't think that would apply to everybody, though. There is still a distinct difference between reality and a video game. However, putting a video game in a car is definitely tempting fate, and making your car into a video game is just stupid.
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
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.
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
GTA == Grand Theft Auto
Personally, I wish that game never came out...
Microsoft-free since March 28, 2004
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.
Then, good sir, your friend is a jackass incapable of distinguishing between real life and a video game.
Not his friend, kind sir. His friend's reflexes. Your nervous system and muscles get used to responding one way, and they'll keep responding that way. If you've ever skated, you'll notice that you walk slightly differently immediately when leaving - you're pretending your shoes work slightly like skates. It's not that you can't distinguish between shoes and skates, it's that you've trained your muscles differently.
Try it: get an observer (single-blind to the purpose of the test if you really want) to see how you drive somewhere, play a racing game there, and ask him if you drove as cautiously on the way back.