The world's biggest carmakers and technology companies are spending billions of dollars to perfect your ability to drive without thinking. But Nissan Motor Co. is taking a different direction — trying to "decode" your thinking so that hands-on driving is more fun.
The Japanese company will unveil and test its "brain-to-vehicle" technology at next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The "B2V" system requires a driver to wear a skullcap that measures brain-wave activity and transmits its readings to steering, acceleration and braking systems that can start responding even before the driver initiates the action.
The driver still turns the wheel and hits the gas pedal, but the car anticipates those movements and begins the actions 0.2 seconds to 0.5 seconds sooner, said Lucian Gheorghe, a senior innovation researcher at Nissan overseeing the project. The earlier response should be imperceptible to drivers, he said.