Nissan is completely invested in its crossover model and jumps through hoops to promote them in ways never done before. Recently, they sent the European Qashqai on a rooftopping adventure, while its American equivalent, the 2014 Rogue, went ice racing and starred in a virtual Google Maps test drive app.

The ice racing thing was just a publicity gig in which Nissan invited Canadian journalists to Quebec’s Laurentian mountains and let them loose on the ice track with a couple of Rogues to boast about its stability and four-wheel-drive prowess. The second effort, the virtual test drive, is a lot more interesting.

Nissan believes the Rogue is an exciting car to drive and wants all the people in the world to have a go in it. That is of course, impossible. So they came up with this neat idea to put the car on the Google Maps Street View feature, so people can take it for a virtual drive around their neighborhood. The problem with this though is that they couldn’t film the car on every street in the world.

So they came up with an ingenious solution. They utilized Google Street View, Google Maps and Google Satellite API, and then designed a clever software that inserts the Nissan Rogue anywhere in the street view you want. To make the experience more realistic – or less unrealistic, to be more precise – Nissan hired Academy Award-winning director of photography Guillermo Navarro, digital production and creative technology from Unit9, and digital effects from Digital Domain/Mothership to do the tricky graphics and sound stuff.

Last but not least, Nissan acquired the rights to M.I.A.’s new single “YALA” as the official soundtrack of the 2014 Nissan Rogue virtual test drive. Visit nissanusa.com/the-detour to have a go for yourself.