Interesting. The new Mitsubishi Delica comes with a bird’s eye view. The news, via Tech On, in Japanese-style English:
The Multi-Around Monitor System processes images shot by four cameras and displays a view from above the vehicle on the monitor. In addition, the front camera, which is equipped with a function to detect obstacles, detects vehicles, bikes and pedestrians approaching from either side of a blind intersection and warns the driver by sound and visual alerts.
As for the systems to display bird’s eye views, Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Honda Motor Co Ltd have already commercialized the “Around-View Monitor” and the “Multi-View Camera System,” respectively. But parts manufacturers of the two systems are different from Mitsubishi’s system.
Also, Mitsubishi’s system is the first one to detect obstacles by using a front camera that is used for bird’s eye viewing. The company is currently developing the two functions aiming at commercialization.
Mitsubishi developed the bird’s eye view system with Clarion and used a 250,000-pixel CCD for the front camera. Nissan’s system employs a 1.35-Mpixel CMOS camera develooped by Sony Corp, while Honda’s system is mounted with Panasonic Corp’s 350,000-pixel CCD camera. In terms of resolution, Mitsubishi’s system is similar to the one developed by Honda.
I’m particularly fond of Mitsubishi’s new tag line for the Lancer, “saving the world from global blanding.” It’s got legs.
Wonder if this minivan finds its way to the U.S.