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Digital rearview mirrors have largely been relegated to concepts and race cars like the Audi R18, but Nissan is looking to change that with their new “Smart rearview mirror.”

Set to debut at the Geneva Motor Show, the Smart rearview mirror is being billed as the “world’s first LCD monitor that not only provides clear rearward visibility under various conditions but also allows the driver the ability to switch between the LCD monitor and the traditional rearview mirror, depending on the driver’s preference.”

The system uses a high-resolution rearview camera and an LCD monitor that projects the image over the traditional rearview mirror. If the driver isn’t impressed with the techno-wizardry they can just flip a switch and convert back to the traditional setup. However, Nissan says the digital rearview mirror provides a wider and clearer view than the standard mirror. The company also says the digital mirror overcomes obstacles such as tall rear seat passengers and luggage.

According to Nissan Executive Vice President Andy Palmer, “[The] Smart rearview mirror will give our customers the best possible view no matter how tall the passengers in the back seat, or the road conditions. It also offers the possibility of new and exciting designs for our upcoming models because Smart rearview mirror is an alternative to a very wide rear window for good visibility. We’ll have the flexibility to create new shapes, and to further improve aerodynamics for better fuel efficiency.”

The Smart rearview mirror will become a dealer option in Japan this spring and Nissan will introduce it globally in 2015. With “new” Nissan Philippines starting operations today, we wonder if this will ever make it here.

Still reeling from the tragic bus accident in Bontoc that claimed more than 10 lives in February, another bus figured in a road mishap last Sunday.

A shuttle-bus fell off the elevated expressway’s southbound lane around 5:00 in the morning. Skyway O&M Corporation’s traffic management security chief Louie Maralit claimed that an SUV collided with the bus, causing the crash.

While there were no deaths reported, the bus driver and a passenger on the SUV were injured and taken to hospital.

It may seem insignificant compared to the Bontoc tragedy, but it still raises questions on when the spate of bus accidents — especially fatal ones — will end. The Skyway is no stranger to this, as just last December, a bus also fell from it, killing 19 individuals.

Officials said lack of engineering, enforcement and education are the main reasons behind the increasing number of deadly road accidents. In most cases, police blamed human error or mechanical defects as the reason behind the crashes. Complaints about reckless bus drivers weaving in and out of the monstrous traffic at top speed is common in the country where the drivers work on a commission basis.

Most of the bus drivers involved in the deadly accidents would say, “Di po namin kagustuhan,” and while this plea may not satisfy the relatives of those who died, there’s a ring of truth in their statement. The bus drivers are mandated to do one thing and one thing only: get as many passengers to ride on their buses so they can earn more. The hell with road safety and traffic rules.

Several proposals — and operative word, proposals — have been submitted to the government. However, in hindsight, perhaps the reason why this keep continuing is the lack of accountability among government regulatory bodies and bus companies.

If you think about it, how many owners — and not just bus drivers — have been put in jail because of major and fatal road accidents? What’s even scarier is — bus companies go scot-free as they can easily register for a new franchise with the same drivers and bus units.

This has been asked after every accident — how many more lives have to be lost before the government stops giving out these bus operators a license to operate, therefore, license to kill?

In your opinion, Kapuso, what should be done to stop these tragedy plying in our streets disguised as buses? (photo from GMA News TV)

Dream come true for car enthusiasts.

The team at NISMO wants you to mix their existing cars and generate weird new models. The ‘MASHUP’ campaign is available through the official Facebook page of the tuning studio and gives you the chance to see your ideas come to life digitally.

Designers and fans of the brand from around the world have already joined the funny promotion with hundreds of provocative projects. Finally the Japanese company’s artists will choose the best flashes and will recreate them into virtual NISMO vehicles.

We wonder — how about a NISMO GTR front-end mashed up with a Navara truck bed? This is a cool idea from Nissan to get their customers involved in designing the cars they want or like. Also makes the job of R&D easier in terms of coming up with new ideas. Only problem is, how NISMO and NISSAN can turn the mashed-up vehicles into real road-going vehicles.

For now, let’s just let our imagination run wild and enjoy what NISMO car we can create, virtually that is.

We can’t emphasize this enough: take care of your ride. It may be brand new now but if you don’t have it regularly cleaned and serviced, it will look, smell and run like a neglected public utility vehicle in less than a year. Here’s the continuation of the list of horrible things that will happen if you don’t take care of your car:

If you don’t service your brakes…you’ll hear a horrible screeching sound, then a tree will approach you much faster than you’d like, then you’ll make a horrible screeching sound, then a government employee will clean you up. You can take the cheap route with most things car related, but never skimp on your brakes. Get them serviced properly, and make sure there’s always plenty of pad on that rotor.

If you forget to test and replace your battery… all will be going great until you miss an interview for a six-figure-salary job because your car won’t start and your high school nemesis gets it in your stead. If your battery is getting close to being five years old, you need to swap it out. Once it’s about three years old you should test it every now and then.

If you don’t rotate, balance, align, and replace your tires… you’ll hear a horrible screeching sound, then a tree will approach you much faster than you’d like, then you’ll make a horrible screeching sound, then a government employee will clean you up. Tires are the single most important part of your car, since they are the only part of your car that acts upon the road. Buy good tires, and replace them when it’s time, not after it’s time.

If you never clean your headlights… you’ll be damn near blind when driving at night, fail to notice an otherwise obvious road hazard, and drive off a cliff into the Pacific ocean. There are a variety of cleaning products for headlamps on the market.

If you don’t refill your wiper fluid… you’ll get some nasty crap of some sort (grease/bugs/bird crap) on your window and you won’t be able to do anything other than smear it around, further impeding your view. As you focus more on the nasty crap and can see less of the road, you’ll run over some kid’s dog/cat/imaginary friend/grandmother. All this could have been prevented by simply pouring the contents of a cheap jug into a resevoir that’s clearly marked under your hood.

So there you have it. Can you think of any terrible repercussions for not maintaining your car properly? Share it with us.

Everybody knows that cars need maintenance, but for some reason the majority of car owners seem to ignore most of these simple chores. Most of this stuff isn’t difficult, and you can pay people a reasonable sum of money to simply do the things that are difficult for you. For the most part, It’s procrastination that is the problem for this vast swathe of car owners; they’ll do it next week right up until the point where they’re stranded on the side of the road wishing that they hadn’t also procrastinated about renewing their AAA membership.

So please, if you have a car, even if it’s a sad, old jalopy, do some basic maintenance on it. If you don’t you’ll suffer from 12 Horrible Things That Will Happen If You Don’t Properly Take Care of Your Car.

If you forget to change your oil… your engine will lose power, run really roughly, and eventually die, leaving you stranded on a desert highway with no reception and nothing but angry scorpions and disgruntled rattlesnakes to help you. It’s pretty simple. Just change your oil at the manufacturer-recommended intervals, or when your dipstick/onboard computer shows that said oil has gotten too nasty. If you’re not willing to do it yourself (and you should be, because it’s easy), just get a local shop to do it. It’s still not that expensive.

If you forget to flush your transmission fluid… you’ll never have a chance to flush it again, assuming you have an automatic transmission. No really, with the complexity of automatic transmissions, a lot of good mechanics will tell you not to flush your fluid if you’ve waited too long, as that can cause problems. It’s better to just sit back and hope that your transmission makes it.

If you don’t change your engine air filter… your engine will get starved of air and run rich, meaning that it doesn’t have enough oxygen for the amount of gas in the combustion chamber. This will cause your engine to start running very roughly, lose power, and be rather inefficient. Eventually, it may stop running all together, but you’d have to wait a really long time for that to happen. You’ll spend too much money on gas. Check the filter every time you change your oil, and if it’s nasty, put a different one in there. Easy.

If you don’t replace your cabin air filter… airflow will be impeded to your HVAC system and your car will smell musty. Check your manual on when to replace it.

If you don’t wash and wax your car regularly… the paint on your car will be covered in a thin layer of grit and grime, meaning that when anything at all rubs against it will leave hundreds of tiny scratches, and hard objects will have an easier time leaving large scratches. Over time, your car’s paint will get dull and ugly looking. In the short term, you’ll just look like a lazy slob. It’s best to do this by hand, but it’s way better to go through a drive through car wash than to never do it at all.

 (To be continued)