Startup Neumo Says It Can Detect Impaired Drivers by Scanning Brain Waves

February 11, 2026

Chris Clonts

Niall Berkery, CEO and cofounder of Detroit-based Neumo, leads a demonstration in which a “driver” controls an on-screen car by focusing on the task. If the in-headrest sensor detected focused brain waves, the car would go faster. If it detected distraction, the car would slow down. *(Chris Clonts)*

A Detroit-based startup says its device can analyze brain activity to help figure out whether a driver is impaired.

The impaired driver-detection business has been heating up since even before NHTSA announced in 2024 that it was working what would eventually be a mandate that vehicles be able to detect impaired drivers and mitigate the danger they represent to the motoring public.

Neumo says that a device hidden in the driver’s headrest can detect brain waves from up to a foot away. Then software parses the data into separate waves such as:

Beta and gamma, which show focused mental engagement.
Alpha, which indicate calmness and passive attention.
Delta and theta, which indicate deep sleep or extreme drowsiness.

In many ways, the Neumo (the name is short for “neural monitoring”) process isn’t all that unlike an electroencephalogram (EEG) that one gets in a neurologist’s office. It’s just a matter of where the electrodes are located – in an EEG they’re directly on your scalp. Neumo says it is the first-ever contactless EEG built for the mobility sector.

There are many solutions vying for this market. In-cabin radar is one possibility, to determine position of the driver’s head and hands. Another possibility is using air sampling to detect alcohol or drug impairment. Cameras can watch drivers, including where their gaze is focused on, and passengers alike, but Neumo CEO and cofounder Niall Berkery says that cameras alone don’t do a good job of detecting drowsiness or the initial stages of substance impairment or medical emergencies.

Any final solutions would likely arrive via sensor fusion, or using more than one mode. Combining cameras plus Neumo’s technology, for example. “An ultimate solution is likely to include sensor fusion,” he said,” of two or more systems. “We can tell you’re focused, but not what you’re focused on. That’s where fusion with a camera would work well,” Berkery said.

Showing the technology during Brose’s post-CES tech days at its Auburn Hills offices, Berkery said the company is in the proof-of-concept stage with two automakers. That’s quick for a company founded in 2024.

Niall Berkery, CEO and cofounder of Detroit-based Neumo, leads a demonstration of his company’s brainwave sensing tech that the company says can help detect impaired driving. *(Chris Clonts)*

The company is also eyeing the fleet market. Insurance for over-the-road haulers has skyrocketed due in part to an increase in so-called nuclear verdict rewards of $10 million or more. An ideal fleet solution would be able to be retrofitted on trucks already on the road. Berkery said they expect to test this year with fleet operators a Neumo device that can be connected via CAN bus or USB.

Berkery expressed bemusement that the technology hadn’t been brought into automobile engineering sooner. “The science has been around for decades,” he said. “We’re just piggy-backing off that.”

The Brose sensor package is embedded in a vehicle’s headrest. *(Neumo)*

Skeptical readers would probably want to know that in a few seemingly hard-to-rig demonstrations of the tech, it seemed to know when this author was intentionally losing focus on an on-screen image and when I was shutting out the noisy tech-day environment.

Movement of a driver’s head isn’t an issue, since the Neumo receiver can receive brain waves from up to 1 foot away and in a 160-degree field of view.

According to NHTSA, distracted and impaired driving causes more than 16,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries annually.