Next big thing Nissan IMX Kuro

This motor’s buddying up with your brain

Please say this is called the Honda Acorah. Top-drawer punning, but sadly the answer’s no – and for two good reasons. Firstly, it’s not made by Honda. And secondly, this mind-reading motor isn’t just for gullible pensioners. No, this is the all-electric Nissan IMX Kuro concept car. It’s one of those crossover SUVS, which means it’s both bigger and smaller than it looks at the same time; but as your mother always used to tell you when you were younger, it’s what’s inside that really counts. Who’s inside? Derren Brown? It’s what, not who. Start thinking more along the lines of HAL: the IMX Kuro has Nissan’s brain-to-vehicle (B2V) tech on board. This uses a headset to read the brainwaves of the driver and, if necessary, start to apply the brakes or turn the wheel before your feeble human body can react to do so. The effect will be barely perceptible – it certainly won’t feel as if some sort of autopilot has taken over – but it could save vital milliseconds, enough to make all the difference in avoiding a collision at high speed. Talk about clairvoyant. Never heard of her. Very droll, but the wizardry doesn’t stop there. The IMX Kuro’s AI also allows the driver to tinker with controls on its minimalist OLED dashboard using eye movements and hand gestures alone – and if you’d rather let the car do all the thinking, it has a fully autonomous Propilot mode. The batteries offer a maximum range of over 600km – and if you park up and plug it in for a long time it can return unused power to the local grid, before making sure it’s juiced up and ready to drive you home when you return. Ever seen Derek Acorah do that?