The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) has completed the world’s first successful multi-car autonomous race at CES 2025. The event was held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway with four IAC AV-24 autonomous race cars piloted by AI drivers from global university teams competing in a 20-lap exhibition race.
The race ended in a photo finish with Unimore Racing crossing the finish line first, less than three-tenths of a second faster than Cavalier Autonomous Racing team. The exhibition race showcased AI advancements and how the IAC is advancing technology to improve the safety of high-speed autonomy. For the first time, four autonomous race cars completed a full race with multiple overtakes and no incidents.
“Since our first race in 2021, the IAC and our university teams have been making history with the world’s fastest autonomous race cars, from setting speed records to introducing the world to head-to-head autonomous racing,” said Paul Mitchell, president and CEO, Indy Autonomous Challenge. “But our goal has always been multi-agent racing, so being the first to have all our AI drivers complete a race and do so with five overtakes, no accidents, and a nose-to-nose finish is a testament to the progress of the IAC’s global ecosystem of highly talented university researchers, industry partners and government supporters.”
Despite challenging weather conditions with 30mph wind gusts, the competition provided exciting highlights showcasing the ability of AI drivers to manage high speeds, head-to-head passing and wheel to wheel racing. All teams finished their race events with no crashes. The winning teams in the time trials and passing competition events were both led by female team managers – Autonomous Tiger Racing by Stephanie Meyer and AI Racing Tech by C K Wolfe.
Alongside the races, the IAC made a major announcement that it says will further accelerate the commercialization of autonomous technologies. The IAC revealed Aidoptation, a new commercial branch focused on leveraging the IAC’s pioneering work in high-speed mobility and autonomous systems. Headquartered in Belgium at DronePort, Aidoptation will focus on commercializing the IAC’s intellectual property, with backing from Belgium’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (LRM) and Ethias, a leading insurance company.
