Find Reviews by Make:
Nissan announced Tuesday that it will make automatic braking standard on all of its mass-market models in its home market of Japan.
Reuters reports the first model to receive the now-standard feature will be the X-Trail Hybrid, which will hit showrooms May 13 with a starting price of ¥2.8 million ($23,423 USD); Nissan expects to sell 3,500 per month.
The move to make the feature standard is a step towards the automaker’s goal of autonomous vehicles, the first phase of which is set to be carried out in Japan next year.
While automatic braking is available in Nissan’s home market offerings, it hasn’t yet decided if it plans to offer the feature elsewhere.
14 Comments on “Nissan Making Automatic Braking Standard On JDM Models By Fall...”
Read all comments
Is it at least defeatable?
Let’s hope not. The folks who stare at their phone while driving in city traffic need all the help they can get.
Anything is defeatable. I couldn’t imagine allowing any vehicle I own to be capable of applying its brakes autonomously.
That makes sense. Judging by the behavior I see on the road, Americans hate safety features. They particularly dislike innovations like turn signals and headlights. I guess it has something to do with freedom and independence. Yet they don’t believe government spying or handing all their data over to Google or Apple infringes upon their freedoms.
Lots of win in that post!
Well since most people spend their driving time looking at devices running Apple or Google software I’m all for automatic braking. I wonder how many accidents are the standard “rear ended” due to not paying attention? It has to be over 75%.
One used to buy cars based on their features, seems now we have to buy cars based on their lack of certain features.
I’d hope this is defeatable, but only through some sort of iq test. I try my damnedest to make sure driving is what I pay attention to while driving. However it’s clear that most people don’t. Perhaps they can pair it with an eye-line-of-sight detector that will enable auto braking if someone’s turned it off and then goes back to their phone.
I understand the thought behind all these safety features, but I view it as an affront to my enjoyment and attention to driving. I’ve been on a couple 2015 Cadillac with the little freak out red light that blinks and beeps when it thinks you’re going to crash…I’m not a fan. It thought the hump in the road to go over a railroad track was the back of a car and about gave me a heart attack the first time it went off with no traffic around at all. I can only imagine the car deciding to stomp the brakes instead of just yelling. I think it’d get me rear ended by whoever was behind me if they didn’t also have the feature.
“I’d hope this is defeatable, but only through some sort of iq test.”
An “attention span” test would be more important.
Nice of Nissan to put a nissan.com.au license plate frame on their JDM car…
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2014_nissan_x_trail_australia_01-1015-mc-819×819-550×402.jpg
Ummm, what exactly does automatic braking mean?
Is this for emergency purposes only? The idea of having such a feature for every day driving could lead to some confusing situations.
The danger with these baby steps towards autonomous vehicles is it will become less and less clear as to who’s actually in control of the vehicle at any given time. Drivers will begin to rely on these safety features and become complacent. I’m sure it’s already happening with radar cruise, blind spot monitoring, lane assist…etc.
Perfect example would be driving along in suburban traffic, car is able to keep pace and safe distance from car ahead all on it’s own, thus making it “safer”. Is the driver still looking out for pedestrians, cyclists, erratic drivers or are they now devoting their extra time and attention towards other non-driving tasks? Are all these other factors built into the software of this safety feature?
In my opinion, we need to be very clear as to who’s in control of vehicles as we slowly march towards this automotive armageddon.
The roads will become a scary place with this level of ambiguity as to who is actually in control and responsible for the safe operation of the vehicle.
One of my colleagues recently bought a Prius Level 5, which has radar cruise. He was going on and and on about the virtues of the vehicle (8 minutes, by my watch, before he got to fuel economy) but his favorite feature, far and away, was radar cruise because it had already intervened once and saved his clean driving history.
I might be a pretty good driver but I’m not perfect. Radar cruise’s attention never wanders. This, blind spot detection, lane departure warning and all those other nanny features that get a lot of negative comments from enthusiasts are must-haves for my next car.