Doctoral students and students from the chairs for vehicle technology and control engineering at the Technical University in Garching are vice world champions in autonomous racing. At the Autonomous Challenge @CES in Las Vegas, they entered the race as defending champions and tested their limits in the process: With spectacular overtaking maneuvers, the team from the Technical University of Munich ultimately took second place and won prize money of 50,000 euros. In a direct duel with the winning team from Milan, the artificial intelligence-controlled racing car from Garching achieved top speeds of up to 270 kilometers per hour.
“In this race we were able to show what our autonomous vehicle can do in conjunction with other vehicles at such extremely high speeds,” says Professor Markus Lienkamp, holder of the Chair of Vehicle Technology. “We have never driven so fast. That is a victory for all of autonomous racing.”
Five university teams started at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race was a highlight in the program of the CES technology fair, which took place in Las Vegas from January 5th to 7th. The prize won is not the most important thing for the scientists: “We now want to bring the technology to the streets,” says Lienkamp. “To this end, we make our research work available in open source.”