Intelligent textile interface for robust multimodal biophysical sensing to enhance driving safety

Adverse driver states account for approximately 30% of global traffic injuries, highlighting the need for real-time monitoring strategies that remain robust under complex real-world driving conditions. However, current vision-based driver monitoring systems are constrained by occlusion sensitivity, environmental interference, and privacy concerns, posing a risk of monitoring interruption. Herein, we report a skin-contact, privacy-preserving intelligent textile interface featuring a topologically invariant knitted architecture that enables robust, continuous multimodal biophysical sensing in vehicles. This is achieved through intrinsic mesoscale structural self-adaptation to complex contact interfaces. The synergistic effect of loop stretching, twisting, and sliding within the textile architecture promotes uniform stress distribution, resulting in exceptional adaptability to irregular surfaces. This design exhibits a bending modulus nearly five orders of magnitude lower than that of traditional polyimide film electrodes, along with an approximately 21-fold reduction in skin-contact impedance. It delivers clinical-grade ECG waveform fidelity and quantifies grip force with a sensitivity of 0.348 kPa^-1 across a 1.25 MPa dynamic range. Real-world validation over 70 km of mixed urban traffic demonstrates real-time monitoring of driver posture and behaviours through 25-channel multimodal signal fusion, while integrated electroluminescent modules provide posture-responsive visual feedback. The textile interface also meets automotive durability requirements, withstanding 100,000 compression cycles, 50,000 abrasion cycles, and 7 d of thermal and chemical exposure (-40 to 100 °C, ultraviolet light, sweat) without signal degradation, confirming its suitability for long-term in-vehicle use. This study establishes a privacy-preserving, skin-contact paradigm for robust biophysical signal acquisition, enabled by a highly adaptive, topologically invariant intelligent textile interface.