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In Indianapolis the first competition in the world reserved for self-driving cars

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The – historic – victory of the Autonomous Challenge, the first competition in the world reserved for self-driving racing cars that just took place on the famous Indianapolis circuit, went to the team of the Technical University of Monaco. A competition that saw 21 teams run – from universities all over the planet – including the Italian PoliMove team of e-Novia, of the Politecnico di Milano and the Euroracing team, made up of ten boys and girls from the Hipetrt Lab of the Physics Department Computer science and mathematics of the University of Modena Reggio Emilia.

The unmanned car runs in Indianapolis

by Vincenzo Borgomeo


The final prize of 1.5 million dollars, however, went as we said at the Technical University of Munich which beat “our” EuroRacing, which fell into a sensational coding error by one of its engineering students. A shame because the Italian team had secured the fastest lap time ever recorded for an autonomous car on this track, which is 139 miles per hour (223 km / h).

The Dallara IL-15 of EuroRacing was in fact programmed to cover five laps instead of the six foreseen for each competitor and therefore slowed down during the final lap around the oval, lowering the average speed and thus losing the challenge he had in his pocket. Other technical problems have ruined the race of many teams, testifying to the fact that the enormous complication of these machines – which run thanks to sensors, cameras, radar, GPS and even sensors provided by the industry pioneer Luminar capable of mapping surfaces from 250 meters away – makes everything very difficult.

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But for Italy, the Autonomous Challenge team aside, there is another reason for pride: the machines are all made by Dallara which then sells them at a “political” price of just $ 230,000 (very little for a car of the kind that is estimated to be worth about one million dollars) so that the different university teams can try their hand at the competition.

The joy of the manufacturer is therefore legitimate: “Nobody knew that these self-driving cars could go so fast in competition”, explained Stefano dePonti, CEO of Dallara USA.

Of course, that just staged is not really a race since it was a time trial race, with the cars alternating on the track in search of the fastest lap. But the competition – which nine teams of college students worked on for two years – was originally supposed to be an event in which all cars would race side by side at the same time. But the organizers changed their minds at the last minute and decided to do a time trial instead, with the cars alternating on the track.

Yet a few days earlier on another Indianapolis circuit, the Lucas Oil Raceway, a side session took place, during which three teams (TUM, PoliMOVE and EuroRacing) ran their Dallaras at the same time, overtaking each other without incident. So for the next appointment, expected in January, the cars will race together. The challenge is launched.

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