A group of Stanford students have prepared an autonomous Audi TTS that managed in 2010 to climb by itself Pikes Peak and recorded a time of 27 minutes, 10 minutes slower than the time of a race car driver. Four years later, the autonomous car is faster on a track, compared to race car driver.
The group took the TTS to the Thunderhill Raceway Park track, where the car managed and caught a top speed of 193 km/h, recording a time that was 0.4 seconds faster than the time of the CEO of the track, an amateur racing car driver.
Scientists at Stanford managed and improved so much the autonomous system of the TTS, studying how the racing drivers control the car. The results of the research showed that the mind does not play the largest role in driving a race car, but the involuntary muscle function.
The car weighs 1470 kilos and has 2 computers that run different algorithms computing the dynamics and safety of the car, while the advanced GPS system, with an error margin of just 2 cm is responsible for keeping the car on the road.
