Nissan has been a keen developer of interesting [automotive related] concepts, be it an electric ice cream van, a camper powered by recycled electric car batteries, a self-parking chair or self-parking slippers [yes, such thing exists]. The Japanese automaker has shown it wouldn’t stop, having done so again with the unveiling of a new autonomous golf ball. As the word “autonomous” suggests, the golf ball is able to navigate and steer itself on a predefined route to a targeted hole. But that doesn’t mean it’ll magically take itself to any hole, instead it works as sort of an assistance system [like the type found in several vehicles today] to help golfers hit their aim on each putt.

The golf ball works this way: a separate overhead camera detects the position of the ball and the targeted golf cup. When the ball is hit, a monitoring system then calculates the correct route based on the ball’s movement and adjusts its trajectory, making it stay on route till it lands in the golf cup. The new golf ball is inspired by Nissan’s ProPILOT 2.0 driver assistance technology, which engages with its cars’ navigation systems to help maneuver them according to a pre-defined route.

Visitors were given the chance to try the autonomous golf ball at the Nissan Global Headquarters Gallery in Yokohama, beginning from the 29th of August through today, the 1st of September. The demonstration runs/ran from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m on the three chosen days. For a first-person view of how it works, don’t go far, watch the embed YouTube video below:

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