Autonomous Maserati breaks speed record
An AI-assisted driving Maserati MC20 has set the speed record for autonomous production vehicles. It is not the first record-breaking drive.
The autonomous Maserati MC20 while driving.
(Image: IAC)
The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) and the Italian University Politecnico de Milano have jointly set a speed record for autonomous vehicles with a self-driving Maserati MC20. On February 23, the vehicle controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) reached a speed of 197.7 mph, approximately 318 km/h, without human intervention on a track in Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida.
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The PoliMOVE-MSU team, which is part of the Artificial Intelligence Driving Autonomous (AIDA) performance department at the Politecnico di Milano, laid the foundations for the success. The team developed the AI-supported driver software. In 2022, the IAC, together with PoilMOVE, had already set a speed record of 192.8 mph with an autonomous vehicle. At that time, an IAC AV-21 racing car was used. In 2024, the Maserati MC20 set a record for the fastest autonomous production vehicle. The MC20 reached a speed of 285 km/h at the Italian military airport in Piacenza.
Full steam ahead to the record
One reason for the new record was the 2.8-mile (approximately 4.5 km) runway at the Kennedy Space Center's Space Florida Launch and Landing Facility. The former runway offered a long enough stretch to set the record. The vehicle drove straight ahead. The robot driver only had to keep in lane, accelerate and brake.
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The AI systems for autonomous driving have been tested in production vehicles in the Indy Autonomous Challenge races since 2021. The AIDA team's high-speed test was designed to show whether the AI and vehicle can hold up under extreme conditions during high-speed driving. Among other things, the stability and reaction time of the AI were examined. The scientists hope to be able to draw conclusions about autonomous vehicles for normal traffic from the tests.
(olb)
