In context
In January 2023, autonomous vehicle technology was advancing rapidly, with universities and startups pushing the limits of AI-driven control systems. The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) at CES provided a high-stakes platform to test these systems in competitive, high-speed scenarios, drawing global attention to the progress of autonomous racing.
What was reported
PoliMOVE, a team from Politecnico di Milano in Italy, won the second annual Indy Autonomous Challenge held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway during CES. The team's Dallara AV-21 autonomous racecar achieved a maximum speed of 180 mph (290 km/h), setting a new world record for autonomous racing speed on a racetrack.
The competition featured nine teams from 17 universities across six countries, competing in head-to-head passing matches. TUM Autonomous Motorsport from Technische Universität München took second place. PoliMOVE had also won the first edition of the IAC in Las Vegas the previous year.
Professor Sergio Savaresi, who leads the Politecnico research group mOve, noted that the event marked a major step forward in speed, race complexity, and handling challenging head-to-head situations. The mOve group has studied automatic controls for land vehicles for 20 years, including cars, electric bicycles, and tractors.
“Today was a major step forward in speed, the complexity of the race, and overcoming challenging head-to-head situations.”
Why it mattered
The victory underscored the rapid maturation of AI-driven vehicle control at extreme speeds, with implications for safety and performance in future autonomous systems. The IAC's format pushed teams to develop algorithms capable of high-speed decision-making and overtaking, advancing technologies that could eventually translate to safer and more efficient autonomous vehicles in industrial and consumer applications.
Source: Robotics & Automation News (roboticsandautomationnews.com) · Published 2023-01-16 · “Autonomous car from Italian university wins the racing challenge”