LOW-SPEED CRUISE: Anyone's who's ever spent any time driving in Tokyo traffic will appreciate the decision by Nissan to create what might be called low-speed cruise control.
The Japanese firm's "distance control assist system" delivers the safe-distance monitoring of active cruise-control (which keeps your vehicle a specified distance away from the vehicle in front of it on the highway) at low speeds and doesn't need to be turned on.
The system alerts the driver to an impending crash by producing pressure on the gas pedal, and then brakes the vehicle when the driver's foot is removed. It won't bring the vehicle to a complete stop, but it does take less time for the vehicle to stop if the driver presses the brake pedal.
This technology will be a real boon in Japan, where traffic is so slow that many vehicles comes with TVs for people to watch while they're sitting there for long periods.
Nissan expects the service to be available in Japan before the end of the decade.