This project gives the phrase “look mom, no hands!” a new meaning.
Whoever said you can do anything if you put your mind to it, probably didn’t mean that literally – as in physically driving cars using your brain alone, for example. Still, Chinese researches say that they developed the country’s first car that uses nothing but brain power to control and move about.
In fact, Reuters reports that the research team from Nankai University has spent two years bringing the mind-control vehicle to reality. The system works thanks to a signal reading equipment that picks up brain EEG signals and transmits them wirelessly to the car’s computer, which in turn processes the signals, recognizes and translates them into a physical command, as professor Professor Duan Feng explains the concept behind the project:
“Driverless cars’ further development can bring more benefits to us, since we can better realize functions relating to brain controlling with the help of the driverless cars‘ platform. In the end, cars, whether driverless or not, and machines are serving for people. Under such circumstances, people’s intentions must be recognized. In our project, it makes the cars better serve human beings.”
The initial idea was inspired by helping disabled people to drive cars, as Duan Feng continued:
“There are two starting points of this project. The first one is to provide a driving method without using hands or feet for the disabled who are unable to move freely; and secondly, to provide healthy people with a new and more intellectualized driving mode,”
For now, the system was made in collaboration with Great Wall Motors, and it can only drive in a straight direction (go forward or backwards), come to a stop, and lock and unlock the vehicle, but we’re curious to see how it will evolve.
Haval Concept pictured
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