Michigan State University’s Indy Autonomous Challenge AI Racecar Sets Speed Record

A team of students from Michigan State University in East Lansing and Politecnico di Milano in Italy set a new autonomous vehicle record speed record in the hill climb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Goodwood England.

The driverless AV-24 racer performed a series of three runs during the festival. The record was broken during the third and final run up the Goodwood Hill where the racecar reached a top speed of 111.2 mph and a finish time of 66.37 seconds. The record-setting run can be watched here . The previous record has been held by Roborace since 2019 when its DevBot 2.0 autonomous car clocked a 66.96-second time at a top speed of 101.16 mph.

Goodwood is known for its unforgiving narrow course, lined with hay bells and limited run-off space. Attempting an autonomous hill climb at the Festival of Speed required absolute control of grip and slippage from the AV-24’s Bridgestone racing tires as well as precision mapping and localization in a GPS limited environment resulting in a higher than usual reliance on the AV-24’s Luminar Iris lidars.

The IAC and PoliMOVE-MSU teams worked closely with Bridgestone’s tire engineers to optimize performance ahead of the Hillclimb including traveling to Bridgestone’s European Technical Center and European Proving Grounds in Rome. The team also had the chance to explore each step of tire production and test how impactful tire performance is on track.

“This challenge represents an important milestone for autonomous mobility,” says Sergio Savaresi, a professor at Politecnico di Milano and the team’s principal. “This weekend we overcame significant challenges posed by a complicated track and temperamental weather patterns.

“Thanks to the exceptional work and skills implemented by our engineering team and tire performance ensured by our Bridgestone racing tires, we made history by showing the public that safe and high-speed vehicular autonomy is possible even in adverse conditions. Our record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed will inspire confidence in future autonomous driving applications.”

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