10.01.202316:45

The self-driving car from the Politecnico beats everyone in the race in Las Vegas

PoliMOVE also sets a new track world speed record


On 8 January, the PoliMOVE team from the Politecnico di Milano won the second edition of the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) at the CES in Las Vegas, reaching an extraordinary maximum speed of 290km/h, new track world record for an unmanned car. Pushing the boundaries of head-to-head autonomous racing, PoliMOVE competed at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway against nine teams from seventeen universities in six countries from around the world. TUM Autonomous Motorsport from the Technische Universität in Munich took second place, in a heated head-to-head with PoliMOVE. This is an important confirmation for the Politecnico car, which last year, again in Las Vegas, won the first edition of the IAC.

Exactly one year after our first win, we were so proud and excited to be back in Vegas for the Autonomous Challenge. For us, this victory represents a major step forward in terms of speed, complexity of the race and handling of challenging head-to-head situations. We are very happy with this success, for the contribution of the Indy Autonomous Challenge and for all the teams in advancing the technology of artificial intelligence applied to driving,

commented Sergio Savaresi, Full Professor of Systems and Control at the Politecnico.

The Indy Autonomous Challenge consists of an elimination tournament with multiple rounds of head-to-head racing between two teams. The fastest autonomous racing cars in the world, the Dallara AV-21s, took turns in the role of Leader and Passer/Follower. Overtakes were attempted at ever increasing speeds until one or both cars were unable to overtake successfully. 

PoliMOVE is part of the research group mOve, led by Professor Sergio Savaresi, which has been studying for 20 years automatic controls in all types of land vehicles: from electric bicycles to cars and even tractors.