Nissan helps you cheat at golf
Wednesday, 28 August 2019
If you are the sort of person who likes to cheat at golf, then Nissan has just developed the perfect ball for you.
Inspired by (and in promotion of) the company's ProPilot 2.0 driver assistance technology - set to debut on the new Nissan Skyline next month in Japan - the ball 'supports' golfers in the same way the ProPilot system supports drivers, by following a predefined route to its goal.
It is probably a bit too complex to effectively cheat with, however, because it relies on an overhead camera that detects the position of the ball and hole, which will be a bit of a giveaway. When the ball is hit, a monitoring system calculates the correct route based on the ball's movement and adjusts its trajectory.
Combining the sensing technology with an internal electric motor, the ProPilot golf ball stays on route until reaching the hole first time, every time.
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The ProPilot golf ball is the latest in a series of concepts inspired by Nissan Intelligent Mobility technologies. Previous examples include self-parking slippers and a robot that can draw a full-size soccer pitch anywhere there is room.
Nissan says the ProPilot 2.0 system is designed for on-ramp to off-ramp highway driving and engages with the vehicle's navigation system to help manoeuvre the car according to a predefined route on designated roadways.
And because it works slightly differently to Tesla's AutoPilot ramp-to-ramp system, Nissan claims the system is 'the first in the world to combine this with hands-off driving capability while cruising in a single lane.'