Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., today released a new all-in-one audio visual navigation system created exclusively for Nissan vehicles which enables music fans to connect their iPod* to the system with a designated connector cable for a seamless iPod experience on the road.
“We are very excited to be collaborating with Apple on this project,” said Carlos Tavares, Nissan executive vice president and head of planning and design in the press release. “The new HC705-A navigation system gives customers the best possible in-car control of iPod through the system’s innovative 7-inch wide touch-panel display. It also allows customers to enjoy their iPod in the car without any concern about battery life.”
The iPod remains automatically charged when hooked up to the navigation system with the connector cable, a convenient feature for long trips. In addition to iPod connectivity, the new high-spec hard disk drive navigation system offers numerous other features, including Nissan’s CARWINGS telematics service, CD/MD/DVD playback and music recording capability.
The navigation system, a dealer-installed option, retails for 315,000 yen. The system is available at all domestic dealers starting from today and can be fitted on 11 Nissan models, including the Serena minivan, the Tiida compact car, the X-TRAIL SUV, and the Moco minicar. The connector cable, which is sold separately, retails for 20,865 yen. The cable supports all iPod models with dock connector.
I wonder how long it will be before Nissan begins offering this as an option in U.S. models?
More important, things like this will further cement Apple’s position as market leader in the world of digital music. The best quote I remember seeing was when an analyst commented, “If your BMW can only connect to an iPod, why the hell would you get anything else?”
When iPod connectivity becomes as common as Sirius and XM radio options in U.S. cars, those Creative, iRiver, Rio, and Dell players are going to look mighty featureless compared to the iPod.
= $2961.32 including connector
“i’m planning to buy a new car to go with my iPod…”
once people start thing like that… game’s over.
Can Dora get one of these things?
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/vehicle_drives_itsef_thanks_to_apples_mac_os_x/
Can the car drive itself?
Dora has, what… 3 or 4 Mac minis running her? she could probably allocate some of that drive space to iTunes, in which case she wouldn’t need a ‘Pod but hey… couldn’t hurt!
I wonder if they will put this in the Infiniti? I’ll be in the market for a new car next year, so the more brands the better. iPod + Sirius = the death of AM/FM radio in my next car.
I live in Japan, so I can go get one immediately! This is much better than claiming a “first post” on MDN.
If the navigation system has a hard drive in it, why not just team up with Apple to put a mobile version of iTunes on the NavCenter hard drive that automatically syncs to your iPod when you plug it in. Then you don’t even need your iPod in your car.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> Or better make it wirelessly sync to your Mac at night.
Of course they have already come out with a similar sort of device on the windows side; Patrick Norton review and tested one on the Screen Savers a couple of years ago; the hard drive system installed like a CD changer in a vehicle, then use a wireless system to sync the tunes on your computer when you car was parked outside your home.
Too bad Nissan’s have become so butt ugly on the outside…except the Z.
I just got a Toyota Estima L so won’t be using this. However the Cybernavi GPS unit by Pioneer I had installed is iPod ready. The user interface however, is a far cry from the ease of use of the iPod itself so I installed two connection options. The normal iPod connection which charges the unit and allows limited control of the ipod through the dock connector, and a headphone jack connector that while it does not charge the iPod and has a small loss in sound quality, allows me to fully control the iPod from the unit itself which I use more when doing control intensive things like listening to podcasts or rating songs.