What camera system gives a top-down view of the vehicle for easier parking?

The camera system that gives a top-down view of a vehicle for easier parking is a 360-degree camera.

In automotive use, the term usually describes a surround-view or around-view system rather than one literal camera mounted above the car. Wide-angle cameras are typically placed at the front, rear and beneath the side mirrors. Software stitches their overlapping images together and transforms the perspective into a simulated bird’s-eye view around the vehicle.

This view helps drivers judge parking lines, curbs, posts and nearby vehicles, especially in tight spaces. It is a parking aid, not a system that independently steers or stops the car in every situation. Objects above ground level can look distorted or appear to lean because the image is reconstructed from cameras mounted low on the vehicle.

The first widely noted production implementation was Nissan’s Around View Monitor, introduced for the Japanese-market Nissan Elgrand in 2007 and soon offered on the Infiniti EX35. A backup camera shows mainly the rearward scene, while a dash cam records forward-facing travel footage; neither normally produces the complete overhead panorama.