Scientists prove you can think your truck to a stop

BERLIN — As George Carlin once said, “when you step on the brake, your life is in your foot’s hands.”

Unless you’re at the Berlin Institute of Technology, that is.

 Scientists there know how to hit the brakes with brain waves instead of feet. 

And their latest research shows that if all brakes were triggered by thoughts rather than by steel-toed Kodiaks, we’d all be a lot better off.

Turns out a driver’s brain is about 13 100ths of a second faster than a driver’s foot.

Researchers at the Berlin Institute for Technology attached electrodes to volunteers’ scalps, and turned the volunteers loose on a driving simulator.

Seriously, the results should come as no surprise.

As investigator Benjamin Blankertz told BBC: "It’s quite easily explained by the fact that we can tap the driver’s intention at the source of the build up of intention in the brain.”

This is the first time that brain waves have been used to help braking but the technique is already used to help paralyzed people control computers, prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs.

The researchers are planning to conduct road trials of their system to test its viability.