Toyota introduces Night View on Japanese Crown Hybrid
Click above to view more images of Toyota's Night View technology
Toyota has been offering a large car known as the Crown in Japan for many years, and it often gets flagship-level technology which floats down to lower models in time. Recently, the Crown got the same parallel hybrid drivetrain which is offered in the Lexus LS600h. To go along with the advanced hybrid drive, the Crown Hybrid will now be offered with Toyota's new Night View technology, which allows drivers to see better under low-light conditions. In normal daylight, the 1280 pixel wide LCD displays what appear to be normal instruments, but at night, the LCD displays an alternate view ahead. While this type of technology isn't really anything new, Toyota has added an interesting new feature to its system which recognizes humans. Although the system only works at speeds below about 40 miles per hour and doesn't operate well in the rain, Toyota is working on improving its system to detect animals and bicycles, while also lowering the cost.
Gallery: Crown Hybrid Night View
[Source: Nikkei]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John Lee 1:13PM (5/31/2008)
I'd like to know if the vision thing can detect deer near the road.
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Phil 2:53PM (5/31/2008)
Detecting humans is not new, Honda have had this feature for a few years in the JDM Legend.
http://world.honda.com/news/2004/4040824_01.html
Also the Honda had a pop up HUD for the IR display, instead of the in-dash multipurpose screens of Mercedes and Toyota. This must be a little safer.
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Throwback 4:14PM (5/31/2008)
Cadillac had night vision in the DTS 5 years ago. It was made by Visteon.
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Rei 10:57PM (5/31/2008)
Huh. The warning on the upper left hand corner says "VGRS System Choke" (VGRS Shi-Su-Te-Mu-Chou-Ku). Wonder what that means?
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Tim 2:02AM (6/01/2008)
Google translates: システムチェック to be "System check" not system choke.
My Charmap-foo says the line below is:
販 完 店 で 点 検 を 受 け て 下 ? い
(Couldn't find the second to last char) But that's probably wrong somewhere, because Google can't make much sense of it. Only part that makes sense in context is "bearing down"
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Rei 3:52AM (6/01/2008)
Tim: You're right -- I misread that "e" as a "yo". How are you getting that second line? It's too small for me to read. Is there a hires image somewhere? I can barely read the first line at the current resolution.
(Ah, just figured it out -- you can click on it to get a hires)
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Ookuma 3:47AM (6/01/2008)
"Chou-Ku"
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Ookuma 3:50AM (6/01/2008)
I actually wrote quite a bit more than that, but oh well.
The character where you have a ? mark is hiragana sa.
That phrase, as close as I can get it means "please take this vehicle to the dealership where you purchased it."
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Rei 3:52AM (6/01/2008)
Oh, and that second to last character is a "sa". As in "Kudasai", the last three characters ("please"). I assume you're using some program to try to grab characters out of an image or something? Strange that it didn't figure that one out.
I don't know that first compound -- the kanji are "sell", "sell", and "store".
販完店で点検を受けて下さい
Lit: (??? by-means-of) (checking to/for) undertake please
Figurative: "Please (???) to check."
All three of the kanji in the unknown part have to do with selling things, but that doesn't make much sense in context. Oh well.
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Rei 3:56AM (6/01/2008)
Ah, that sounds about right, ookuma.
Nihongo de jouzu ja nai ;)
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Ookuma 4:32AM (6/01/2008)
いえいえ日本語が下手ですけれども今日本に住んでいますよ。
大熊
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Oo 4:37AM (6/01/2008)
I suppose that shows exactly what I said, because I misread the romanization that you wrote to say "ja na" instead of "ja nai"...
My mistake, ごめんなさい。
大熊
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Tim 9:43AM (6/01/2008)
Nope, just used Paint Shop Pro to enhance and enlarge the image and a lot of time sifting through Charmap's Ideographs by Radical [MS PGothic font] for the Kanji.
Hiragana/Katakana is fairly easy to match up, but Kanji is a PITA. I can't believe I missed that Sa though ... the stylized letter made it look like two unconnected symbols, and I never really zoomed out and looked at it from a distance. :P
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Dustin 12:43PM (6/02/2008)
Nice find, Phil (#2). Honda introduced the technology on its DualNote concept in 2001. Not only night vision with pedestrian detection, but also displayed on the windshield (Heads Up Display), as you mentioned.
I see a growing trend on this site where everything that is said to be a "first" by Toyota can actually be attributed to Honda even earlier.
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