A self-driving car has learned to make high-speed turns without spinning out. The skill could come in useful during emergency manoeuvres. J Christian Gerdes and colleagues at Stanford University used a type of artificial intelligence algorithm called a neural network, which is loosely based on the neural networks in our brains, to create the self-driving system. They trained the neural network on data from more than 200,000 motion samples taken from test drives on a variety of surfaces, including on a mix of snow and ice at a track near the Arctic Circle. The team equipped a Volkswagen GTI with the algorithm and tested it on an oval-shaped race track.