Nissan Honors Its Unsung Hero Employees In New Anime Series

Dec. 25, 2022 6:25 AM ET by Gerhard Horn Technology / 1 Comment

Nissan celebrates the people that keep the company ticking in a delightful new series.

Nissan is shining a light on individual employees who help keep the company strong by creating an animated series called Heroes of Innovation, and as you can see in the teaser trailer below, it will focus on people who design technology that changes lives.

This is a brilliant idea, as the praise usually lands on high-profile employees like Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan's senior vice president of global design and the man who designed the Nissan Ariya. While Albaisa was in charge of the design, he had an entire team working under him, and it's people in teams like these who are now being honored in anime.

The first episode is dedicated to Kyle Martus, a Nissan engineer based in the USA.

Martus is the man in charge of evaluating the effectiveness of headlights. According to Nissan, "his careful eye validates performance to ensure the headlights on new vehicles give crisp illumination of the road ahead, even on the darkest nights."

So, if you're impressed with the headlights on the updated Nissan Versa, you have Martus to thank for it.

His job is not limited to headlights, however. Martus and his team are based at Nissan's technical center in Farmington Hills, Michigan. They evaluate components like wipers and doors to ensure they comply with America's needs. It may seem like a silly job, but keep in mind that wipers serve an entirely different function in cold-weather states in the USA than they do in an arid country like Namibia.

Because a large part of his job has to do with headlights, his schedule is quite strange.

"I typically head out around 10 PM with a lamp designer riding along," said Martus. "It's a qualitative test, so I'm hyper-focused on making sure the lighting is where it's supposed to be. Illuminating a curvature in the road, for example, or supporting natural visibility without streaking."

According to Martus, his biggest problem while doing next-generation testing is not the car paparazzi but rather the local wildlife. "I've encountered my share of deer and other wildlife," said Martus. "The deer seem a lot less interested in figuring out what future product I'm evaluating."

Martus drives an hourlong loop and gives detailed feedback to Nissan's design and engineering department. So, if you've ever wondered how next-generation LED lighting systems are developed, this is how it happens.

You can watch the full first episode of the series above, with more to follow in the coming days.

Join The Discussion

Gallery

Tags: #Nissan News #Offbeat #Technology #Video

Gerhard Horn

News & Features Editor

Contact Gerhard @GrootScreenGerhard

Back

To Top