Imagine if you were to chop off Johnny Five’s head and put him on your dashboard. I realize that sounds gruesome, and I’m sure someone actually did that at the end of the original Short Circuit, but just imagine that cute little head on your dash having loving expressions, and showing you the way to go home.

This is essentially the role of AIDA (Affective Intelligent Driving Assistant). This robot head not only serves as a GPS Navigation system, but it actually has expressions. It’s eyes will look happy when you’re going the right way, and become a warning sign when you are not. There is a video of this intriguing concept after the jump if you aren’t already sold on it yet.

AIDA is more than a navigation system, though. It is intelligent enough to remember where you have been, and from this information determines your driving habits. It uses a lot of sensors to gather intel, and will even let you know when you’re low on gas, and where is the best place to stop for gasoline on your way.

AIDA is still concept for now, and is under development by MIT SENSElab, MIT’s Media Lab’s Personal Robots Group, as well as the Volkswagen Group of America’s Electronics Research Lab.

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