{"id":216772,"date":"2022-01-07T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=216772"},"modified":"2022-01-07T13:27:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T18:27:51","slug":"making-history-a-racing-competition-with-no-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2022\/01\/making-history-a-racing-competition-with-no-drivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Making History: A Racing Competition with No Drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The nine teams competing in Friday’s Indy Autonomous Challenge.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Look closely at the racecars being readied for Friday\u2019s race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and you may not give it a second thought. But look closer, and you\u2019ll find there\u2019s no accommodations for a driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As racing series go, it\u2019s the one you might not have heard about. It\u2019s known as The Indy Autonomous Challenge, a series of autonomous races meant to improve autonomous car technology. Yes, the technology is new. But the idea is as old as automobiles: racing improves the breed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A historic day for autonomous vehicles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The series\u2019 most recent race, prior to the one Friday, was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October<\/a><\/span><\/strong>. At that race, each teams\u2019 vehicles lap the track one at a time. But Friday\u2019s competition differs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Driverless race cars awaiting a historic raceday.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the first high-speed, head-to-head autonomous racecar competition where nine race teams, comprised of participants from 19 universities from eight countries, will compete on a track at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAutonomous racing is expanding the boundaries of tech,\u201d said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which owns and produces the Consumer Electronics Show. \u201cThe Autonomous Challenge @ CES will further show our attendees all that is possible with self-driving vehicle technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if to prove the point, Halo<\/a><\/strong>, a driverless car service that uses T-Mobile\u2019s 5G network in Las Vegas, will serve as the official pace car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improving the breed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
TUM, the winner of October’s competition, from Germany\u2019s Technische Universitat Munchen.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Beyond its publicity value, the race is meant to foster technological innovations that quicken the introduction of fully autonomous vehicles and advanced driver-assistance systems, with innovations coming from the race teams culled from universities worldwide. For these students, it\u2019s the 40,000 lines of code each race car requires that makes a difference in the race, not the car\u2019s driver. The top prize is $1 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October\u2019s competition, TUM, a team from Germany\u2019s Technische Universitat Munchen using a Dallara AV-21 race car won the competition with a combined two-lap average of 135.944 mph. TUM took home the $1 million purse and is using the money to launch a new company that develops SAE Level 4 and 5 autonomous vehicle platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The IAC allowed us to build a large team of researchers and students, work with top international universities and collaborate with leading autonomous technology supplies,” said Alexander Wischnewski, co-team lead of TUM Autonomous Motorsport. “The competitive environment allowed us to grow our technical and management skills in real-world racing conditions, one of the most demanding applications of technology. It’s exactly what we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
In this racecar series, coding, not drivers, makes the difference.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

PoliMOVE \u2014 an entry fielded by students from Italy\u2019s Politecnico di Milano and the U.S.\u2019s University of Alabama \u2014 topped 151 mph in straightaway speed, but couldn’t beat TUM\u2019s total average speed in the October race, with a two-lap average of 124.450 mph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the race wasn\u2019t without incidents. That race saw four cars hit the wall, with others doing so during practice. What today\u2019s race holds remains to be seen. But if there are incidents, the only injuries will come from bruised egos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The premier sponsor behind the race <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Orlando, Florida-based\u00a0Luminar Technologies<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is the premiere sponsor of the event, which should be no surprise. The company manufactures laser-based lidar sensors that helps enable autonomous automotive technology. Luminar, which claims it\u2019s working with 7 of the top 10 global automakers, has been tapped by Volvo Cars to make laser sensors standard on its flagship SUV due later this year. Luminar has also signed agreements with\u00a0SAIC Motor Corp<\/a><\/strong>., China\u2019s biggest automaker, and\u00a0Daimler Truck AG<\/a><\/strong>. Both Daimler and Volvo are minority investors in Luminar.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Spot, a Boston Dynamics robot, holds the checkered flag at October’s race.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Looking to become a player a major autonomous vehicle supplier, Luminar has been developing Sentinel in collaboration with Zenseact<\/a><\/strong>, a Volvo subsidiary. The system integrates Luminar\u2019s lidar, software, and components with Zenseact\u2019s autonomous driving software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given its agreement with SAIC, and its collaboration with Zenseact, the company\u2019s plans to open an office in Shanghai alongside SAIC should come as no surprise. Luminar\u2019 systems will be used on SAIC\u2019s R-Brand SUVs. But the company faces competition from other new lidar startups, including\u00a0Ouster<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Innoviz<\/a><\/strong>, as well as\u00a0Velodyne Lidar<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and Israeli Intel subsidiary\u00a0MobileEye<\/a><\/strong>, which is a Luminar customer \u2014 for now.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Technology Innovation Institute<\/a><\/strong> (TII) joins Luminar for this race as a premier sponsor of the event. TII is the research pillar of the Advanced Technology Research Council, a global research and development center that is building an R&D ecosystem in Abu Dhabi and the UAE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Racing improves the breed, in this case, by eliminating the driver. But can source code outthink a human? TheDetroitBureau.com goes into the pits of the first head-to-head autonomous racecar competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13752,"featured_media":216762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5,1608,905,969,9],"tags":[3921,4184,4094,4323,4329,4328,4330,4327,4326,4203,4324,4331,4325,4332],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13752"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216772"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216815,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216772\/revisions\/216815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216772"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=216772"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=216772"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=216772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}