Nissan has developed a new parking assists system it calls the Around View Monitor, which will offer drivers a bird’s eye view of their car and surroundings in real-time. The set-up uses four ultrawide-angle resolution cameras mounted on the front, sides and rear of the vehicle, which combine to give a complete 360-degree view around the vehicle.

A monitor inside the car shows the view from above on the left, and a front or rear view on the right. This will alternate between the front and rear views depending whether the car is in reverse or drive modes.

The first model to get the new system will be the Japanese domestic market Elgrand van at the end of this month but it will eventually filter across onto other models including the EX35, which will be arriving in the U.S. in December. Nissan also announced plans for a lane departure warning system for the EX, which you can read about by clicking here.

When parking, sensors mounted on all four corners of the vehicle also warns the driver if they’re moving to close to a fixed obstacle with easy-to-understand colored graphics. Such systems make parking larger vehicles much easier but we hope it doesn’t have the unwanted effect of making such cars more popular in dense cities than they already are.