A team made up of representatives from Maserati, the Indy Autonomous Challenge, the 1000 Miglia Experience Florida and the Politecnico di Milano university has claimed a new autonomous speed record with an MC20 Cielo. It reached 197.7mph on the Kennedy Space Centre runway, with AI driver software in control. Which is some going whoever (or whatever) is behind the wheel. The demonstration was part of a wider initiative from MOST – Italy’s National Centre for Sustainable Mobility – which wants to create ‘scalable solutions for eco-friendly transportation.’
Maserati has some previous with this endeavour, with a hardtop MC20 driven by a robo-driver (also created by the Politecnico di Milano) hitting 177mph last year to claim the fastest autonomous production car title. This new speed obviously surpasses that achievement and also edges ahead of the outright claim to the autonomous car record, which was held by an IAC AV-21 racer and its 192.8mph run, also at Cape Canaveral in 2022.
“These world speed records are much more than just a showcase of future technology; we are pushing AI-driver software and robotics hardware to the absolute edge,” said Paul Mitchell, CEO of Indy Autonomous Challenge and Aidoptation BV. “Doing so with a street car is helping transition the learnings of autonomous racing to enable safe, secure, sustainable, high-speed autonomous mobility on highways.”
This particular Cielo has also completed around 60km of the Mille Miglia route autonomously, which is some achievement for even the most skilled of human drivers. So this isn’t just about straight lines, wide open spaces and top speeds. Maserati reckons the achievements represent the ‘evolution of mobility, projecting Italian engineering into new international scenarios.’
There’s a lot involved in getting a car to make 200mph without a driver look so easy. The software was developed by the PoliMOVE-MSU team, itself part of the wider AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Driving Autonomous) at Milan polytechnic. The modifications undertaken to make the MC20 work autonomously haven’t been disclosed. And while nobody is expecting swathes of driverless cars doing more than three miles a minute any time soon, demonstrating the tech can work at high speed bodes well for the application of AI to low-speed urban mobility situations. We’ve all seen enough slow-speed shunts on a rush hour motorway or tricky city centre junction to know that some assistance there could prove beneficial.
For now, the Maserati is continuing its American adventure by joining the convoy of the 1000 Miglia Experience Florida. There’s probably a joke in there about using AI because no person wanted to drive in Florida. There’s no word yet on what comes next, though clearly progress is being made at a rapid rate; while more than 200mph feels like the obvious target, probably dealing with a Milanese rush hour would be the MC20’s tougher challenge…