Mercedes-Benz safety researchers are also taking an increasing interest in the brain of the driver. Working with university medical institutes, they are investigating the processing mechanisms occurring in the brain during driving.
In the past, safety researchers tended to regard the driver as a "black box" and tried to understand drivers according to their observed behaviour. Thanks to developments in medical technology, especially functional magnetic resonance tomography, they can now for the first time look into the driver's brain. Used in combination with mobile in-car electroencephalography (EEG), this approach means that the researchers can attempt to draw a "map" of the thought processes which operate during driving. Based on the results of brain research, future information and warning systems could be designed to operate more effectively and provide the driver with optimum support in hazardous situations.
Intelligent image-recognition sensors, appropriate learning strategies for computers, new digital road maps and brain research are important components for turning the vision of "accident-free driving" into reality.