According to recent research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), making accident-avoidance technology available market-wide could cut crashes by up to a third. Unfortunately, most of these systems rely on expensive radar sensors, and they're usually only available as a costly option for luxury vehicles. However, as far as Nissan is concerned, that's just not a good enough excuse to not keep all drivers as safe as possible.

Nissan has long been an industry leader with their available safety features. In fact, they were the first automaker to make Brake Override Technology standard across their lineup - long before lawmakers asked automakers to adopt this technology. And so, when it comes to accident avoidance sensors, Nissan is at the forefront of making it available to everybody.

While it's unlikely that the cost of radar sensors will come down, Nissan is using technology they've already developed to keep costs low. They're calling the system the Multi-Sensing System, and the automaker has taken their already existing Around View Monitors and they've, well, tweaked them a bit. With the addition of advanced image processing, the system can detect pedestrians, lane departure, and objects in vehicle blind spots.

They've developed the system in-house, so you're likely to find it only on new Nissan models for a few years. The good news is, this system will only cost a few hundred dollars per vehicle, compared to the thousands of dollars that a radar system can cost. And, Nissan says, it's a perfect fit for their major vehicles, like the Rogue, Murano, Altima and even the Sentra.

The Multi-Sensing System is expected to be available to Nissan shoppers early in 2012. So be sure to stay tuned with John Howard Nissan for more news and updates! In the meantime, take a minute to explore our 2012 Nissan inventory via our website, and contact us via our website to learn more. As we get further into 2012, feel free to stop in and see us at 1730 Mileground Morgantown, WV 26505 and see this new technology for yourself.