We often think about how cars handle traversing the various terrains of the globe, but we never think how capable our car would be if it suddenly needed to drive on the ocean floor. We have more than a few very good, obvious reasons for that, but it hasn’t stopped Nissan from helping scientists build remote vehicles for undersea exploration.
Nissan has partnered with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) to develop remotely operated vehicles that will be used to search the sea bed for natural resources. Specifically, the automaker is providing its Around View Monitor (AVM) technology to help the robot rock crawlers navigate the sea floor more safely.
What the AVM does on cars like the Nissan Juke, Qashqai, and X- trail is provide a 360-degree overview of the car, simulating a bird-s-eye view. This helps drivers avoid obstacles in tight maneuvers or tricky parking situations. For the ROV’s, the AVM function the same way but will also have a new 3D rendering capability that will display the immediate topography around the vehicle.
This will allow the ROV operator to better measure distances while roving, improving situational awareness and subsequently the efficiency of undersea searches.
Above sea level, Nissan’s AVM tech is a large part of the autonomous drive tech that the company is developing to provide more mobility options for the drivers and minimize traffic incidents. This includes integration with Nissan’s Moving Object Detection that became a part of the system in 2011.
Nissan is expecting to roll out autonomous driving on the road by 2020. It just goes to show that much of the technology automakers develop has potential in so many other applications. While some may see parking cameras as a gimmicky gadget that they’d rarely use, others saw it as a potential game changer in science exploration. Nissan should definitely get a tip of the hat for this one.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.
Missing out on the self-driving future is a tough pill to swallow, especially as a car enthusiast. But that is what Tesla handed us on Wednesday, without a hint of mercy.
During its October 21, 2026 earnings call, Elon Musk told investors the Cybercab is meant mainly as a ride service. Further, nearly all of them will be owned and managed by Tesla.