Auto Moto Gadgets

The new Night View system from Toyota aims to increase road safety for both drivers and pedestrians, by highlighting anyone on foot in the vehicle’s way. While the older Night View system superimposed the road on the windshield, the new version, seen on the Crown Hybrid, displays the road on the LCD meter. The upside is that the windshield stays clear – the downside is that the driver should keep looking up and down to get a good idea about the road ahead of him.

The system employs pattern recognition to identify pedestrians and, when spotted, surrounds their location, as well as the whole screen, with a yellow band. However, conditions such as high speed (over 60km/h), intense darkness or wipers operating during the rain will decrease accuracy.

Although the Night View system can only identify pedestrians now, Toyota aims to add features for recognizing bicycles and animals.

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Remember the Driving LED Emoticon? Well, if the options it offered weren’t enough, now you can go for the Bling Unit.

This time the messages are influenced by hip-hop vocabulary, so if you’re a fan of street style this is the gadget for you. The Bling Unit comes with 5 built-in messages: “Holla”, “Phat! Thank you”, “Sorry Homey”, “Chill Out Homey”, and “What Ever” and it attaches to your rear window with a suction cup. The remote stays with you, on the windscreen or in the glove compartment, and the 4 AA batteries that power the main unit should last you 4 months.

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I think safe driving should be everyone’s main concern – though unfortunately it obviously isn’t. But, if you’re not going to go out of your way for safety, at least let technology help you.

That’s probably what Mitchell Brown, a student of the University of New South Wales, thought when he designed the Tracer HUD. The device, entered in the Australian Design Award competition, is aimed at young drivers. A Heads Up Display (HUD) projected on the windscreen lets the driver know his speed at any time. If the driver of the vehicle exceeds a pre-determined speed limit, the device will record and notify a nominated party of the violation via SMS, so users will be encouraged even more to drive responsibly.

The system is completely independent, as it only requires power from the car battery via the cigarette lighter port, and the speed is detected via a GPS connection; therefore, the Tracer HUD can be retrofitted into older cars.

More photos after the jump.
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