Telepathic Driving? What You Should Know if You’re Interested in Auto Mechanic Certification

It may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but recent developments have the automotive world buzzing about technology that could give a whole new meaning to hands-off driving. That’s because telepathic driving may be closer to becoming reality than you may realize. Furthermore, researchers and auto manufacturers think this mind-controlled driving could be the key to making autonomous cars more enticing for consumers.

If you’re interested in becoming an auto mechanic, read on to find out what you should know about this exciting technology, which might one day be coming to a car near you.

Auto Mechanics Might Be Interested in the Science Behind Telepathic Driving

Although it may sound outlandish, telepathic driving is actually more possible than you might think. In fact, how we think may be how we unlock this futuristic technology!

In a nutshell, our brains emit electric signals that tell the rest of our body what to do. Electrodes attached to the head can read these signals, which can then be decoded and analyzed with a computer. Certain patterns in our brain signals, known as ‘error-related potentials’ (ErrPs), occur when we see a mistake being made and, by using a brain-computer interface (BCI), drivers can communicate with the computerized system in their car to correct driving errors almost instantaneously. For students in an auto mechanic training program, that means telepathic driving has the potential to make cars much safer.

Telepathy Can Change the Way People Think About Autonomous Driving

Beyond safety, telepathic driving could also help fuel the growth of autonomous cars. One of the biggest barriers to autonomous driving is public perception. Autonomous driving often feels impersonal to many people because it shifts control from people to machines. Telepathic driving has the potential to offer a happy medium between robot-controlled cars and human-controlled cars.

Autonomous driving systems are meant to keep drivers and passengers safe on the road. As students in auto mechanic college may know, automotive safety is one of the biggest issues in the industry today, and manufacturers are turning to the latest technology to help improve the overall safety of their vehicles.

Companies such as Nissan, for example, are forging the way towards telepathic driving with what is called Brain-to-Vehicle (B2V) technology, which uses electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor the brain activity of drivers. By connecting our minds to the steering wheel, Nissan hopes to improve the accuracy of a vehicle’s autonomous system response by ‘plugging in’ to the brain signals we emit while driving. Nissan even claims that its B2V system can reduce reaction time by as much as 0.2 to 0.5 seconds—giving drivers an estimated 14 or so metres of extra braking room on the road.

While telepathic driving may not be coming to a garage near you anytime soon, it still represents exciting progress towards driver and automotive safety.

Are you interested in a rewarding career in the automotive industry?

Contact Automotive Training Centres for more information about earning your auto mechanic certification.