BrainDriver: A Mind Controlled Car

Imagine you could drive your car using only your thoughts. German researchers have just made that possible -- and they have the video to prove it.

Following his recent interview on the Robots Podcast about autonomous vehicles, Raúl Rojas, an AI professor at the Freie Universität Berlin, and his team have demonstrated how a driver can use a brain interface to steer a vehicle. Here's what the researchers say about the project, which they call the BrainDriver:

After testing iPhone, iPad and an eye-tracking device as possible user interfaces to maneuver our research car, named "MadeInGermany," we now also use Brain Power. The "BrainDriver" application is of course a demonstration and not roadworthy yet, but in the long run human-machine interfaces like this could bear huge potential in combination with autonomous driving.

To record brain activity, the researchers use an Emotiv "neuroheadset," an electroencephalography, or EEG, sensor by San Francisco-based company Emotiv, which design it for gaming. After a few rounds of "mental training," the driver learns to move virtual objects only by thinking. Each action corresponds to a different brain activity pattern, and the BrainDriver software associates the patterns to specific commands -- turn left, turn right, accelerate etc. The researchers then feed these commands to the drive-by-wire system of the vehicle, a modified Volkswagen Passat Variant 3c. Now the driver's thoughts can control the engine, brakes, and steering.

To road test their brain-controlled car, the Germans headed out to the former airport in Berlin Tempelhof. The video below shows a driver thought-controlling the car, Yoda-style. "Don't try this at home," the narration says, only half-jokingly.

via spectrum.ieee.org

Would you dare to drive a mind controlled car? Well, I wouldn't! I'm not a daredevil, after all, and want to have full control of my car!

Comments

[Constantinos]

I hate driving anyway and would never consider driving a mind controlled car.

[Laura]

I'm impressed but no, I'd never dare to drive such a car. I'd rather use my bike! :-)

[Ted S]

Yeah, sure! Why not if I could afford it!

[Haruko N]

Hmmmm.....I think the best cars are made in Japan!

[Andy]

Why not? I'd love to give it a try.

[Christina]

Sounds exciting! I'd definitely like to drive a mind controlled car!!!

[Stefania]

Not for me!! Sounds too risky.

[Anastasia]

I couldn't agree more! I wouldn't change my Mazda for any other car, no matter how sophisticated it is!

[Lakis Ioannou]

I love that car!!!!

[Jim]

Love it! I could steer clear of traffic jams! Hope it's soon roadworthy.

[Account Deleted]

Though I want a very modern car that makes driving easier such as features that make the car fly to avoid traffic, I don't think I can handle this mind-controlled car.
The trouble with this car is that if our brains drift to some other thoughts and then what happens to car? There were researches done which found out that some drivers drive without really active thinking because they know and are so much familiar with the roads they drive each day. If this is the case, driving on a familiar road can be dangerous because this is where when human minds can drift and shift.

[Jean-Paul Bouvier]

Peut-être un jour pourrons nous aller chercher notre MacDo au drive sans bouger de la maison… Il ne faudra pas se déconcentrer une seconde sur le trajet…

[Mrkmakth]

Yes, that's a mind-controlled car and, after a bit of training,it appears to have performed reasonably well - albeit with a slight delay that makes any real world test a worse idea than it already was. Interestingly, this latest effort actually follows some previous attempts at a completely autonomous car by the same group of researchers at the Freie Universität Berlin, and they say that the two could eventually be combined at some point in the distant future, for instance, in a taxi that's able to drive itself but also responds to the thoughts of its passengers!!! Right now, I can't trust this car!

[Sophia]

I was just wondering if you can order that car, with your thought only, to find you a parking place when you can't find one in your desired parking lot. That would be great!!!

[Anastasia]

I also believe that such a car can be very dangerous. The human concentration span cannot be controlled by machines - not even by the most state-of-the-art computer.

[Alexia M]

It's the delay between the brain command and the steering action that worries me....