Nissan Urge sports car melds vehicle controls with video games

January 9, 2006

Capitalizing on the needs of younger consumers,
Nissan plans to unveil a new sports car at the North American
International Auto Show this week, that will allow the driver to play video
games when the car is not moving. Apparently, Microsoft has teamed up
with Nissan to provide a little Xbox 360 action if the traffic is at a
standstill.

To some young drivers, a car that's also a video-game
system may sound like a dream come true -- or so Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.
hopes with a new concept car aimed at gamers.

Nissan's Urge sports car, introduced at the North American
International Auto Show here this week, is a prototype where the steering
wheel and pedals become game controllers when the car is still. The mirror
conceals a small flip-down screen. The dashboard conceals a Microsoft
Corp. game console.

The Urge may be one of the more extreme examples of a trend to
introduce more entertainment features to help differentiate a vehicle in a
crowded marketplace, especially to a generation used to mobile phones and
portable music players like iPods.

To serve those plugged-in drivers, more car makers are turning their
vehicles into entertainment centers. High-end features, like navigation
systems and backseat video monitors, can add as much as $2,200 to the cost
of a car, according to J.D. Power and
Associates.

That's not all, sighting a trend that indicates we wish
our vehicles were rolling entertainment centers, other car manufacturers are
pushing the envelope as well. For instance, we might like this idea of an iPod
dock next to the drivers controls with airplane style screens in the headrests.
In addition, GMC has mentioned an HD 26" flat screen that will be available soon
and yet another car that sports a 40 gigabyte hard drive for storing movies,
music and games along with a $600 sound system. Even with high gas prices,
it looks as though we consumers still have a little money left to
burn.

Source: Reuters