Autonomous Vehicle Experts Gather At IMS To Envision Self-Driving Race Car Challenge

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The Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Energy Systems Network (ESN), the advanced energy technology initiative of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP), hosted some of the world's leading autonomous vehicle technology researchers at the Racing Capital of the World on Thursday, May 23, to explore the potential for a global autonomous vehicle competition to be hosted in Indianapolis.

The goal of the workshop is to develop potential objectives and rules for such a competition, and to discuss prospective timelines, vehicles and other core elements. IMS and ESN envision using the input gathered from the workshop to further refine the concept, examine a potential competition framework, and work to engage additional stakeholders to support its possible implementation.

"This gathering at the Racing Capital of the World provides an opportunity to embrace our heritage and again serve as a catalyst for the next generation of vehicle technologies in both motorsports competition and wider consumer platforms,” IMS President J. Douglas Boles said.

Nearly 15 years ago, the DARPA Grand Challenge gave birth to the modern-day autonomous vehicle (AV) industry by awarding a $1 million prize to the team that could first complete a 132-mile course in the southwestern U.S. desert. Today, a group of more than 20 researchers from industry and academia is gathered to develop what may become the successor to DARPA, spurring a new wave of innovation and AV commercialization.

The first phase of this exploration started in the fall of 2018 in Mountain View, California, with a gathering hosted by Sebastian Thrun, whose Stanford University team won the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005. Thrun, the CEO of KittyHawk and co-founder of Udacity, is among a group of stakeholders advising the development of this potential new competition.

For updated information as it becomes available, subscribe for email updates at indyavchallenge.com. For more on Energy Systems Network, visit energysystemsnetwork.com.

The experts and researchers participating in the workshop include:

• Ariel University
• Clemson University - International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR)
• Dallara Automobili
• Elevate Ventures
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
• Kennesaw State University
• Kettering University
• Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST)
• LHP Engineering Solutions
• Michigan State University - Autonomous and Connected Vehicle (CANVAS) Research Center
• Ohio State University - Center for Automotive Research (CAR)
• Purdue University
• Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
• Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI)
• Toyota Mobility Foundation
• University of Alabama
• University of Florida Transportation Institute
• University of Virginia
• University of Waterloo
• Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) - Center for Advanced Automotive Research

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