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Mind-powered ‘Emotiv’ car safety system tested

c Mind-controlled car (c) Getty-Ford ‘Neuroengineering’ company Emotiv has created a ‘mind-powered’ headset that can detect when a driver is distracted and automatically slow down the car, in an effort to improve safety. The Australian firm has already brought its most recent mind-controlled device to market – the Epoc headset. It’s this high-tech brain activity monitor that has now been adapted to determine how hard a driver is concentrating on the road ahead.

Skoda Octavia vRS breaks 200 mph at Bonneville

Skoda Octavia vRS breaks 200mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats You can tell just how far Skoda has come from its days as makers of mobile skips when they can justify going out to play at the Bonneville Salt Flats with a Skoda Octavia vRS, just for the glow the outing will cast on its range. But they haven’t just gone to play, they’ve also achieved the quite remarkable feat of taking a modestly modified Octavia vRS to 202.15mph, which is going to do no harm whatsoever in drawing attention to the very appealing vRS cars in the Skoda range. To drag an extra 50mph plus out of Octavia vRS did necessitate a tweak or three, but nothing overly dramatic.

2013 Maserati Quattroporte night testing (video)

Maserati has released a video of the 2013 Quattroporte out night testing ahead of a Detroit Auto Show public debut. The new Quattroporte is bigger and more powerful than the current model and leaves Maserati room to introduce a smaller version – the new Maserati Ghibli – to take on the sports saloons from BMW, Mercedes and Jaguar. To be honest, the video tells us little we don’t already know about the new Quattroporte (except perhaps that it has frameless glass in the side windows), but it does indicate how keen Maserati are to keep the new Quattroporte’s PR momentum on the move ahead of its debut.