Indy Autonomous Challenge racecar sets self-driving hill climb speed record

By Mike Oitzman | July 20, 2024

The latest self-driving AV-24 racecar from the Indy Autonomous Challenge university competition set the fastest autonomous hill climb time at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed or FOS, this past week. An artificial intelligence system built by PoliMOVE-MSU, a joint effort from Politecnico di Milano, Michigan State University, and the University of Alabama, drove the car.

After three runs, the racecar broke the record on the third and final Goodwood Hill run at 111.2 mph (179 kph) in 66.37 seconds. Roborace’s DevBot 2.0 driverless automobile set the previous record in 2019 at 101.16 mph (162.8 km/h) in 66.96 seconds. The hill climb is 1.14 miles from a standing start.

At the hill climb event last year, Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) teams mapped out the hill climb course to create accurate simulation models of the course and train the AI drivers throughout the year. This enabled the teams to show up this year at Goodwood FOS in Sussex, U.K., ready to run the hill climb.

Goodwood is notorious for its small, hay-bell-lined track and restricted run-off. To maximize performance for the AV-24’s autonomous hill climb, the IAC and PoliMOVE-MSU teams cooperated with Bridgestone’s tire engineers at their European Technical Center and European Proving Grounds in Rome.

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Indy Autonomous Challenge graduates at Goodwood

The Indy Autonomous Challenge noted that it was a participant in the Future Lab presented by Randox at last year’s Goodwood event. The Technical University of Munich (TUM) used its vehicle to conduct a low-speed scan of the hill, creating a digital twin to help this year’s racers.

The IAC claimed that it is the first exhibitor to have “graduated” from the Future Lab to the Hillclimb. Future Lab showcased STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) including autonomous vehicles, augmented and virtual reality, robots and drones, sensor fusion, solar power, the Internet of Things (IoT), and generative AI.

In addition to the chassis, drivetrain, and tires, the IAC’s partners and sponsors provide a variety of sensors, simulation, testing, and controls for the racecars so that the university teams can focus on their unique self-driving technologies.

The Goodwood FOS is the second major event on the 2024 Indy Autonomous Challenge race schedule as outlined by CEO Paul Mitchell. On Sept. 6, the IAC returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is where it all got started back in 2021.

New racecar debuted at CES 2024

The Dallara AV-24 made its debut at the 2024 IAC @ CES at the Las Vegas Raceway in January 2024. During the CES 2024 event, nine teams from 18 colleges competed with heritage AV-21 racecars or demonstrated the new AV-24 racecar.

The TUM Autonomous Motorsport team defeated the University of Virginia’s Cavalier Autonomous Racing team in the AV-21 racecar at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The racecars attained speeds of 150 mph (241 km/h).

TUM and KAIST took Rounds 1 and 2 side by side and wheel to wheel, getting as close as 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in a semifinal, a competition first. Autonomous Tiger Racing from Auburn University; Black & Gold from Purdue University; and MIT-PITT-RW from MIT, Pitt, Rochester, and Waterloo were the other AV-21 teams.

The AV-24 racecar was demonstrated at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by AI Racing Tech from UC Berkeley, Hawai’i, San Diego, and Carnegie Mellon; PoliMOVE-MSU; and TII UNIMORE Racing from Modena and Reggio Emilia.