The Indy Autonomous Challenge, or IAC, returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today to highlight the latest self-driving car racing format. This year’s event includes an AI and Automation Summit with panels on topics ranging from the “Emergence of AI in the Physical World” and “The Metaverse Meets Reality” to “AI, Automation, & The Race for Human Talent.”
Since its inception in 2021, the IAC has pushed the limits of speed and autonomous vehicle controls, encouraging university teams from around the globe to put thousands of hours of time and energy into their respective racecars. The first few events demonstrated the capabilities of the vehicles to navigate around the track at high speeds.
This progressed to head-to-head competition with the passing of one vehicle by another at high speed. This year, for the first time, multiple self-driving cars will be on the track at the same time, directly racing for the checkered flag.
The 2024 IAC event featured several panels discussing uses of AI. | Credit: Indy Autonomous Challenge
Indy Autonomous Challenge intended to advance vehicle R&D
Challenges such as the IAC are helping artificial intelligence and robotics researchers to push the boundaries of perception, decision making, and controls in a safe environment. On the race track, the vehicles push all of the various system components to their limits.
On the road, in consumer vehicles, you might only experience an occasional edge case, while on the race track, autonomous race vehicles experience these edge cases in every lap. This data is helping leading universities to develop new algorithms that will eventually find their way in to products that could help save lives on our public streets and highways, said the IAC.
The event organizers also reached out to the surrounding community in Indiana to bring local school children to see the track, promote STEM education, and inspire the next generation of automotive engineers.
I attended the inaugural race at IMS back in October 2021, and for a motorsports fan, this was a thrilling way to experience IMS in person. In the three years since, competitors have set and broken land-speed records for autonomous vehicles multiple times.
PoliMOVE passed TUM in the final pass of an IAC race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. | Credit: Indy Autonomous Challenge
IAC @ CES to continue
The autonomous races among university software-development teams have become a regular feature at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. IAC has even debuted on the international stage with competitions at Monza in Milan, Italy, and the Goodwood Hill Climb in the U.K.
At Goodwood, the AV-24 base-model vehicles performed a series of three runs. They set a new record during their third and final run up the Goodwood Hill, where the racecars reached a top speed of 111.2 mph (179 kph) and a finish time of 66.37 seconds.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway now hosts an IAC event during the annual CES event. | Credit: The Robot Report
The IAC AV-24, a fully autonomous racecar piloted by an AI driver, sets an autonomous hillclimb record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2024 (@fosgoodwood).
⏲️Final time: 66.37 seconds
🏁Top Speed: 111.2 mph (179 kph)Proudly presented by: @Bridgestone
Coded @PoliMOVE pic.twitter.com/lfsyuhErfc— Indy Autonomous Challenge (@IndyAChallenge) July 16, 2024
Other races offer competitive opportunities
The IAC event has spawned its own competition with the launch of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL). The stated goal of these events in the United Arab Emirates is to create an “extreme racing series” that will push the envelope of autonomous technology.
Conceived by ASPIRE, it is a STEM-fueled global autonomous showcase. Each year, teams from educational and technological institutions from around the world compete to develop the fastest, most capable racing AI. In addition to road racing, the A2RL will also feature off-road racing and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) racing challenges.
While the IAC hosts international teams from universities in North America, Europe, and South Korea, it has no teams from China. The Dubai autonomous race features teams from both Europe and China, but none from the U.S.
It is expensive to race these vehicles, and all of the teams depend heavily on industry sponsorship for funding.
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