Tech­ni­cally this is noth­ing new, but Nis­san has announced a sys­tem that brakes by itself, another step towards a com­pletely auto­matic (and totally bor­ing) dri­ving expe­ri­ence. In fact, the sys­tem is really a brak­ing and accel­er­a­tor con­trol system.

The sys­tem uses a com­puter and radar to tell when it’s draw­ing too close to some­thing in front of the vehi­cle. When this occurs the car will lift the accel­er­a­tor, alert­ing the dri­ver, and if the dri­ver acknowl­edges and takes his foot from the accel­er­a­tor, the car will apply the brakes and stop the car com­pletely. Of course if the dri­ver doesn’t acknowl­edge, the car con­tin­ues on it’s merry way. Inter­est­ingly, Nis­san also announced a alco­hol sens­ing sys­tem� — per­haps these two sys­tems chain together as part of Nis­sans’ over­all safety strat­egy — because we doubt a surly drunk is going to agree to the cars prod­ding to slow down. Per­haps the sys­tem should over­ride an ine­bri­ated dri­ver, or like in the Nis­san con­cept Fuga, stop dri­ving com­pletely for an under the influ­ence driver.

[Source: Auto­blog]