Unmanned racing cars on the legendary Indianapolis circuit, and a winner: an algorithm, which drove his autonomous car at an average speed of 218 km / h.
On the average speed of two laps launched, the German team from the Technical University of Münich (TUM) won the million dollars (860,000 euros) promised to the winners of this first Indianapolis Autonomous Challenge ( IAC), reserved for self-driving cars.
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Without a pilot, the car relies on sensors, cameras, radar, but above all on GPS, without which no controlled movement is possible, to the point that some vehicles carry two.
The Dallara IL-15, a single-seater used by all teams, costs $ 230,000, but with the technology on board, organizers estimate that each vehicle entered is worth a million dollars.
The sensors supplied by the Luminar specialist can, for example, decrypt a surface of one cm2 at a distance of 250 meters.
"A piece of history"
"Nobody knew that these (autonomous) cars could go so fast in competition", reacted Stefano dePonti, general manager of Dallara USA, who considers having taken part in "a piece of history". For two years, the nine competing university teams had been preparing for a classic race, with all the cars on the track. But at the last moment, the organizers reduced the sails, to content themselves with passing the single-seaters one after the other, with the mission of achieving the best time on two laps.
However, a few days ago at another circuit in Indianapolis, the cars of TUM, PoliMOVE and EuroRacing all ran well together and there were overtaking without human intervention.
Appointment is already made for January at CES, the big annual tech show in Las Vegas, during which a real race should be organized, with the same cars, even if nothing is official yet.
