New Nissan Leaf Can 'Read Minds' but It's Not What You Think
A very special Nissan Leaf recently appeared in a video, which was weird but definitely attention-grabbing. This particular Nissan Leaf sports an interesting feature: It can read minds, sort of.
"To commemorate the 5th anniversary of the 100% electric Nissan Leaf, Nissan produced a special version that allows people to 'see' what the driver is thinking and feeling, using brainwaves that are immediately converted and projected into words and visuals on the road," Nissan said in the video's description.
As can be seen in the video below, it's not the intuitive type of mind-reading but CNet believes it could be the first step to the real thing. The "mind-reading" Nissan Leaf is tied to the vehicle's fifth anniversary. It works by using a headset that has a brain-scanning mechanism. It then picks one of 33 messages that is a rough translation of what the driver is feeling and then displays them as projections that can be seen on each side of the car. The messages are displayed from a projector mounted on the car's roof.
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Although the projections evoke a fun feeling thanks to the cartoonish or manga-esque way it is displayed, it's not clear how it can benefit the driver. PC Mag noted how it might even distract the driver, observing that one teen took a few seconds to look at the projection composed of words enclosed in jagged bubbles. For other drivers, however, the projection might have some use. The publication suggests the messages could possibly warn them of a road rage waiting to happen. As the video below is basically an ad, obviously the reactions were limited to variations of "wow."
This "mind-reading" Nissan Leaf is not the first quirky concept that came from the Japanese automaker. Last year, it introduced the Teatro for Dayz, an all-electric minivan that has seats and steering wheel made of LED screens.
