Nissan is looking to soon roll out a smart vehicle that can read, interpret, and act on human thoughts — all for safe and pleasurable driving experience.
The Japanese carmaker intends to showcase this new technology in time for the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, which kicks off Jan. 9. Nissan calls the futuristic feature "brain-to-vehicle" or "B2V," and the chief design is to provide invaluable driving assistance both in manual and autonomous mode.
With B2V in play, the car is programed to predict a driver's movements and execute maneuvers ahead of time, estimated by Nissan to be between 0.2 seconds to 0.5 seconds. The company said the driver will not sense the car's "earlier response," giving the impression that he or she remains the sole pilot of the modern vehicle.
"We imagine a future where manual driving is still a value of society ... Driving pleasure is something as humans we should not lose," Lucian Gheorghe, a senior innovation researcher at Nissan, said in an interview.
The ultimate goal, according to Gheorghe, is for future cars with smart navigating features to deliver a better riding experience that will apply to both drivers and passengers.
Safety And Comfort
Nissan's B2V car feature is equipped with a brain-reading technology that can detect discomfort, for instance, with the use of a headgear. In such a case, the car when cruising in autonomous mode will activate its builtin artificial intelligence and adjust the vehicle's driving style.
In the same way, the car can manipulate the vehicle's ambiance when stress is detected to induce a relaxing mood. The purpose for both scenarios is for passengers to feel safe and comfortable while traveling with a B2V-enabled car.
"When most people think about autonomous driving, they have a very impersonal vision of the future, where humans relinquish control to the machines ... Yet B2V technology does the opposite, by using signals from their own brain to make the drive even more exciting and enjoyable," Nissan executive vice president Daniele Schillaci said in a statement.
CES 2018 Unveiling
Nissan will reveal how the B2V system actually works at the CES 2018 next week. To be clear, there is no working prototype to be unveiled, which indicates too that mass production is not happening soon, but the plan is to use a driving simulator that will show off key elements of the modern car feature.
The company said B2V, while still a work in progress, will transition to reality in the next few years. By 2020, an autonomously driving Nissan car — one that can smartly negotiate roadways without human intervention — is envisioned to fire up its engine.
