We may - not too-long from today - look back fondly on the days when a headrest was just a headrest. Kind of like the way a steering wheel used to be just a steering wheel - before it became a "safety" device.

One that sometimes explodes shrapnel in your face.

But how about a headrest that gets into your head? One that houses a scanner that monitors your brainwaves - also for "safety" reasons? It is apparently in the works. A company by the name of Neumo has reportedly been "shopping" a "contactless, non-invasive way of collecting brainwave activity data and helping (car companies) interpret it in a way that can ensure drivers stay alert and are otherwise in tip-top driving form."

How, exactly, will this be done?

Neumo's headrest scanner is based on a "sensor that can be mounted discreetly in the vehicle's headrest to collect brainwaves passively from up to 12 ins. (30.5 cm) away" and a "printed-circuit-board antenna that detects the brain activity and a receiver to relay the information collected."

Relayed to whom? Well, the car's computer, of course.

"Data gathered is crunched by Neumo's proprietary software and scored on a 10-point scale, evaluating the driver's level of distraction and drowsiness, state of health and well-being and the amount of workload and stress they are under."


Italics added.

State of health? Apparently, it's not enough that our state of mind is to be monitored. Our cars are to be used to keep us healthy as well as "safe."

Is it not wonderful to be so cared about by corporations - and the government? The two often go together these days. Especially as regards corporations that make cars. There was a time when they opposed this sort of thing, chiefly because it was thought that most people who bought cars opposed this sort of thing would not want to buy what the government wanted them to sell. Then, an epiphany! More money could be made anticipating what the government would want them to sell and making it part of the new cars people had no alternative but to buy - if they wanted to buy a new car - before it was mandated.

There was - and is - the secondary advantage of making it more difficult (by making it more costly) for putative (non-established) competitors to compete with the established car companies.

Henry Ford was able to sell his Model T for much less than other cars of the time because the government of the time did not decree that all cars must be hand-made to order, as was true of most of the other cars available prior to the introduction of the Model T.

Chevrolet came along and tried - successfully- to compete with Ford. As did many other brands of cars. It apparently did not occur to the people in charge of those brands - perhaps they lacked the audacity to advocate for it? - that competition should be forestalled by government. That regulations - in the name of "safety" - could be used to on the one hand increase their profit margins and on the other, shield them from new competitors, by making it too expensive for them to compete.

That is, to comply.

Imagine being a Henry Ford today and having to come up with the money to integrate six air bags in your prototype and make it pass muster with the federal regulatory apparat. Now you know why there is no Henry Ford today.

But is an Elon Musk.

Back to the brain scanner that will monitor your health as well as your state of mind:

"(S)cores exceeding certain thresholds would trigger vehicle features meant to regain the driver's attention or help calm them down - such as drowsiness alerts or soothing ambient lighting and mood music. Each automaker would be able to decide how best to make use of the data in its cars and trucks."

It is not difficult to imagine what "each automaker" might decide is the "best use" of the "data" collected. There is money in such "data" - and not just in terms of what collecting it will cost as reflected in the MSRP. The insurance mafia is also very much interested in such "data," which can be used as a metric for mulcting. An even higher-tech iteration of the mulcting that follows from the "data" already collected regarding how fast you're driving (and stopping) which can and is construed as aggressive driving. Your "premium" - i.e., the extortion you're required to pay - goes up, not because you've wrecked or filed a claim but because your encephalic pattern isn't quite what it ought to be, as per "certain thresholds."

You continued driving when you were "drowsy."

That is, if the car permits you to continue driving when it considers you to be "drowsy," as indicated by the "data" collected by the scanner built into your car's headrest.

"In a static demonstration in which (Neumo CEO Niall) Berkery's office chair is retrofitted with the technology and connected via Bluetooth to his computer, the Neumo sensor detects the executive's brain activity while the software's algorithms break down the raw data into subset groupings based on frequency, displaying those outputs on the computer screen in a series of virtual wave meters. The individual waves indicate how close Berkery is to the state of sleep, whether he is speaking and how much work his brain is doing."

Does it make you feel "safe"? Or does it creep you out?

Of course, there will be no way out. The "technology" will be embraced - a word often used in such contexts - by the car companies before it is even pushed by the government. The corporations having learned that there is money - and less competition - in compliance.

But, don't worry!

"Unlocking a deeper understanding of a driver's cognitive state can dramatically improve the driving experience, making it safer & more enjoyable."

It is likely that we'll one day soon be fondly remembering the days when a headrest was just a headrest.
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