Jaguar's Anti-Distraction Tech Will Be Able To Read Your Mind, Sort Of

Distracted drivers cause a huge number of deaths on our roads every year, so what do you do to cut casualties? Mind reading, apparently. In Jaguar Land Rover’s second tech announcement in as many days (yesterday the company unveiled a remote control Range Rover), Gaydon has revealed details about its ‘Mind Sense’ research into brainwave monitoring.

By monitoring brainwaves, a car’s onboard computer can tell if you’re focused, daydreaming, sleepy, or distracted. The trouble is how to pick those brainwaves up in the first place: the technology is already there, but involves using a headband on the subject, which Jag rightly points out as “something that would be impractical in a vehicle.”

The answer comes from Nasa. And the US bobsleigh team, apparently. Both of these rather different organisations use hand sensors that can pick up brainwaves, which are then amplified and filtered for background noise.

If the system then detects that the driver is indeed distracted, it can do something like vibrate the steering wheel to make sure he or she jolly well pays attention, and if no reaction is sensed, throw out another warning.

Other future technology research products announced by Jaguar today include Mid Air Touch, which uses ultrasonic waves to let you operate a screen without actually touching it, as well as Wellness Monitoring, which uses sensors in the seat to check the driver’s heartbeat and breathing.