Nissan Forum
by: William Ford
Posted on: Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 3:38 pm by: William Ford
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Did you ever wish that your minivan was more like a babysitting limo with all the comforts of your living and kitchen combined?
I was pretty happy cooking and watching TV at home but the Nissan design team has created a “home mobile” with “togetherness through technology.” The general idea is that the adults in the front seat can be as involved or removed as they see fit from their children in the back seat.
Let’s say, for examples sake, that your kids have been fighting for hours on end and now its time to pawn them off on Grandma for the rest of the day. But Grandma lives and hour away and you can’t take the screaming any more. Good thing the Nissan Forum is parked out front. You start by opening the front door a full 90 degrees and then sliding the long, trackless, side doors out of the way to throw all the kids gear in with the kids in the 3rd row seats. As you start the vehicle the wireless “kid cam” is activated so you can see your kids without turning your head. They start at each other again but in no time you switch the DVD player on and electronically rotate their seats 90 or 180 degrees so the screams are directed away from you. Also their personal pizzas are already warming in the built in microwave.
But watch out! You neighbor’s miniature poodle is right behind the rear tire! Thankfully the Nissan’s advanced Around View Monitor (AVM) system has controllable cameras mounted in the front, rear and sides of your Forum. For the split second you switch from watching the kid cam to not killing Fluffy, the kids start fighting again. You wave your hand in front of the Bose media system and the infrared sensors are triggered bringing up the initial system interface. With the ability to control the sound in all three rows, you “time out” the sound in back while The Eagles are still blasting up front, and over the intercom yell a warning back to the kids that they’re being watched.
The concept of the Forum hasn’t been conceptualized in it’s entirety since it lacks a method of propulsion, namely an engine. Rachel Nguyen, Director of Advanced Planning and Strategy promises us that, “There are many occasions during a week when, with a family’s busy schedule, the vehicle is the only place where everyone is together – so we’ve incorporated features and technology to enhance this precious ‘quality time.’
If the only quality time your family spends together is in the car you have much bigger issues, one’s that merit family counseling, not a Nissan.
