Nissan Touts Potential for Brain-to-Vehicle Controls

Nissan Motor Co. says it is developing a new technology that would allow vehicles to anticipate a driver’s actions and preferences based on brain pulses.

Using electrode sensors in a skullcap worn by the driver, the so-called brain-to-vehicle (B2V) system measures the brain’s motor cortex activity in real time. Special algorithms and artificial intelligence identify changes associated with driver behaviors, such as steering, braking and throttle functions.

The decoded information is communicated to the appropriate vehicle system to initiate the intended action ahead of the driver’s action. Nissan says this can save as much as a half second in response time, while being virtually imperceptible to drivers. The system is coordinated with sensors monitoring a vehicle’s surrounding environment to ensure that vehicle actions are taken only if it is safe to do so.

In addition to predicting movements, Nissan says B2V could be used to detect driver preferences and comfort levels and adjust vehicle settings accordingly. This could include changing ambient lighting, information displays or ride characteristics during autonomous driving.

Nissan, which hopes to commercialize the technology in the next decade, will demonstrate a prototype at next week’s CES electronics show in Las Vegas. The research program is being led by Lucian Gheorghe, who has a doctorate in applied neural technology and is a senior innovation researcher at Nissan’s Research Center in Japan.

Watch a video that explains the system here.