- Maserati MC20 is equipped with numerous Lidar, cameras and sensors
- Demonstration vehicle hit almost 200mph at the Kennedy Space Center
- A second autonomous MC20 Cielo took to the streets of Florida
Maserati has just set a new autonomous speed record at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as its drop-dead gorgeous MC20 supercar hit 197.7mph without a human behind the wheel.
The initiative is a partnership between the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) and Politecnico di Milano, Italy’s largest scientific-technological university, with the pair aiming to test the very limits of hardware, computing power and artificial intelligence where it relates to advanced levels of autonomous driving.
The clever crew at the Politecnico di Milano, which forms part of a team that specializes solely in autonomous driving at the university, managed to hit 192.8mph in its IAC AV-21 race car in 2022, but returned to one of the world’s longest runways at 15,000 feet (2.8 miles) to attempt to beat it using Maserati’s 630hp street car.
According to the team, pushing the MC20 to almost 200mph without a driver behind the wheel “demonstrates the robustness and reliability of the algorithms developed for autonomous driving," Scientific Director of the project Professor Sergio Matteo Savaresi explained.
To further demonstrate how far the team has come in terms of autonomous driving abilities, the team also brought along its convertible Maserati MC20 Cielo, which had been specially fitted with Lidar, camera and sensor technology.
This drop-top model managed to complete around 60km (around 37 miles) of the famously tricky 1000 Miglia road race in Italy two years ago without a driver behind the wheel.
It went on to parade the streets of the south easternmost US State during the 1000 Miglia Experience Florida to showcase "the excellence of Italian research" according to the team.
That said, the images reveal that a human had to be in the driver's seat. Perhaps the organizers were worried about Tesla owners getting jealous.
From the racetrack to the streets
Far from simply being an impressive autonomous speed record (although not an officially sanctioned Guinness World Record), the Kennedy Space Center achievement helps push AI-driver software and robotics hardware to the very limits.
Paul Mitchell, CEO of Indy Autonomous Challenge and Aidoptation BV claims that by transitioning to a streetcar, rather than a purpose-built racing machine of previous record attempts, it helps “transition the learnings of autonomous racing to enable safe, secure, sustainable, high-speed autonomous mobility on highways”.
At speeds of almost 200mph, software reaction times have to be razor sharp and, perhaps more importantly, super reliable.
The team claims that if it can create a system that safely navigates these sort of highly illegal speeds, it can translate some of the findings to help improve low-speed urban mobility.
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