Self-driving cars stand to be the next piece of technology that shakes the foundations of modern life. It’s not hard to see why—it’s basically science fiction come to life. Since it seems like everybody wants to be involved, news that Mercedes and Nokia were teaming up didn’t come as a huge surprise.
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You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Nissan might be the last name on your mind to have it announce that it is behind the latest smartwatch concept, considering how the company happens to be an auto manufacturer and not a consumer electronics player in a long shot. Well, this just goes to show how diversified some companies’ interests can be, and Nissan has just announced their conceptual Nissan Nismo smartwatch that will not hook up to your smartphone so that you have a “duplicate” of what kind of incoming notifications and calls you have, but rather, it would help connect the driver to the car, and vice versa.
For starters, the Nissan Nismo smartwatch’s main strength is to showcase Nissan’s intent to deliver biometric data that will help enhance driver performance and efficiency. Needless to say, their foray into this particular market segment would automatically make Nissan the first car manufacturer to develop a smartwatch that was specifically designed for drivers of Nissan Nismo cars. Provide drivers with real-time biometric data, it will also enable the driver to monitor the efficiency of their vehicle with average speed and fuel consumption readings; access vehicle telematics and performance data while on track; capture biometric data via a heart rate monitor; connect to the car using a smartphone app via Bluetooth Low Energy; and receive tailored car messages from Nissan.
Who knows what the future might bring? There are another three more key technologies that have been identified for future development, and they are ECG (Electrocardiogram) to help measure the intervals of the R-R rhythm of the heart and identify early fatigue; EEG (Electroencephalogram) Brainwave that is capable of monitoring the drivers’ levels of concentration and emotions while assisting athletes to get ‘In The Zone’; and Skin Temperature, where it will keep track of your core body temperature and hydration levels. Powered by a lithium battery, the Nissan Nismo Watch will be juiced up via microUSB and offers a battery life of more than a week under normal usage conditions.
Press Release
[ Nissan Nismo smartwatch not quite ready for prime time yet copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
When you are doing something that requires a lot of thought and concentration it’s surprisingly easy to forget to breathe. For instance, when you’re zipping down the racetrack at 100mph or pulling 2Gs around a corner, you should breathe. To help drivers be aware of their state of being while behind the wheel, Nissan has unveiled an interesting and rather offbeat device called the Nismo Watch Concept.
The purpose of the smartwatch is to connect the driver to their Nismo car and provide the driver with real-time biometric data. Drivers can use the watch to monitor the efficiency of their vehicle including average speed and fuel consumption. The watch can also access vehicle telematics and performance data while the driver is on the race track. The Nismo watch also captures the driver’s heart rate.
The watch connects to the car using a smartphone application and the watch can receive messages from Nissan having to do with their specific vehicle. There’s no word on if the device will be produced or what it might cost, but it’s interesting to see Nissan considering something like this.
Car maker Nissan has joined the burgeoning smartwatch scene, announcing that it’s created a biometric reader to combine personal health stats with those of your… car. So you can track man and machine from the same device.
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Here we are with Nissan working on a smartwatch, where it will not go up against the Samsung Galaxy Gear, but rather, it is meant to cater for the Nismo motorsports range. Meant to be worn by daredevil, adrenaline loving racers, it will be able to keep track of a vehicle’s performance followed by an analysis. Not only that, it will also record the driver’s heart rate and social media presence. To do so, however, it will have to be hooked up to a proprietary smartphone app via Bluetooth. The Nissan Nismo Watch is nowhere near a commercial release at this point in time, but it will be on display at the Frankfurt Motor Show later this September.
Smartwatches do seem to be catching on, and who knows, they might be the next big thing. I find it rather interesting that some trends in the technology world seem to recycle themselves. Take size for instance – there was one point where the cell phone industry was looking forward to the next smallest device, and when the smartphone industry boomed, everything started to get larger and larger, until the term “phablet” was coined not too long ago. Not only that, smartphones incorporated more and more additional functions that your portable media player, pedometer, MP3 player and dedicated GPS navigation device were all rendered obsolete. Now we are asked to purchase more and more portable devices that “talk” to one another – a smartphone is accompanied by a tablet and will eventually be hooked up to a smartwatch.
Nissan Nismo Watch Concept original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Following the rising popularity of wearable devices, Nissan has just launched its own Nismo Concept Watch ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show this month. But rather than doing the normal things you think a smartwatch would do, the Nisma Concept’s features focuses on keeping tabs on both the car and driver’s status in order to […]
Nissan’s no stranger to conjuring up ideas outside its wheelhouse, but we still didn’t expect the company to join the smartwatch fray. The device, if and when ready for commercial release, won’t be a staunch Galaxy Gear competitor, though — it’s being developed specifically for the Nismo motorsports line. Since it’s meant for use by racers, it’ll monitor and analyze a vehicle’s performance, and, as a nice bonus, even a driver’s heart rate and social media presence. To be able to do so, it connects via Bluetooth to a proprietary smartphone app. The Nissan Nismo Watch is far from gracing shelves, but the concept will be on display at the Frankfurt Motor Show this September. Those who can’t make the long trek to Germany will have to make do watching the video after the jump.
Filed under: Wearables
Nissan might have a pretty lofty ambition of placing self-driving cars on the road by the time 2020 arrives – which frankly, does not leave them with all that much time between now and then when you think about the enormity of the task involved, but this does not mean that the folks over at Nissan cannot peer even farther into the future. Imagine a crossover between a Stormtrooper from Star Wars with our everyday lives, where Nissan’s most recent ad campaign shows that the Emperor’s legions of Stormtroopers, all decked out in their shiny armor but for some strange reason or another, are unable to place a shot in when faced with the Rebel scum, are getting down and groovy with Nissan’s Juke mini SUV.
Nissan might be targeting a global crowd with their Juke mini SUV, but this particular ad also shows off that an intergalactic audience will also have their attention directed at the Japanese car manufacturer’s latest ride, too. Nissan has also set up a series of original Web movies, where one of the episodes can be seen above. Makes you wonder how come Nissan decided to ditch the Starfleet Federation in favor of the Star Wars universe, does anyone have any speculation for that decision?
Nissan Ad Features Stormtroopers original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Nissan has announced that they will have self-driving cars available by the year 2020. Or more specifically, that they will have “commercially-viable Autonomous Drive in multiple vehicles by the year 2020.” Nissan has detailed plans to have availability across the model range within two vehicle generations and to launch a proving ground in Japan that […]
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