Autonomous golf balls might not be what anyone really needs, but it's pretty satisfying to always get a hole-in-one.
The high-tech golf balls from Nissan are just a concept the Japanese automaker is showing off this week in Japan to highlight its newest driver assistance system, ProPilot 2. The new system will let drivers take their hands off the wheel on designated roads with the destination plugged into the navigation system.
It's a small dose of autonomous driving that's coming to the Nissan Skyline sedan this fall in Japan. It's like a hands-free Autopilot system on Tesla vehicles. But to get a better sense of how the car can drive itself between two points, Nissan took the technology and put it in a golf ball. There's even a small electric motor in the ball.
No matter how poorly you swing, the ball makes it into the basket. An overhead camera detects where the ball is and puts it on the right path to go into the hole -- just like the autonomous driving features keep the car following the road while driving. Here in the U.S., Nissan's original ProPilot Assist is available and gives you semi-autonomous features. But even if the car is navigating curves, stopping for slow traffic, and changing lanes for you, you have to keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.
The newest system that's first coming out in Japan lets the driver truly cede over control to the car on certain stretches of freeway driving, just like the golf ball is programmed to find the basket on a predefined path.
It might be high-tech cheating, but it'll make the most amateur golfer feel like a pro. Take a swing with the ProPilot golf balls at a demonstration at Nissan headquarters in Yokohama, Japan if you're in the area Thursday through Sunday.
