The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) made history during CES 2025 with what it says is the world’s first successful multi-car autonomous race. Once again held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, this year’s event marked a major milestone with four AV-24 fully autonomous racecars piloted by AI drivers from top university teams competing in a 20-lap exhibition race. The race ended in a thrilling photo finish, with Unimore Racing from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia crossing the finish line less than 0.3 s ahead of the Cavalier Autonomous Racing team from the University of Virginia.

The race week showcased impressive advancements in AI driver capabilities and highlighted how the IAC is advancing technology to improve the safety of high-speed autonomy. Four autonomous racecars completed a full race with multiple overtakes and no accidents for the first time in motorsports history. It demonstrated how autonomous systems could navigate extreme speeds while also safely managing complex multi-agent interactions in real-time.

“Since our first race in 2021, the IAC and our university teams have been making history with the world’s fastest autonomous racecars, from setting speed records to introducing the world to head-to-head autonomous racing,” said Paul Mitchell, President and CEO of the 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.”

During CES 2025, the IAC featured a progressive, tiered competition format designed to allow teams at varying levels to compete and showcase their AI driver development. Nine university teams competed in three tier race events.

In the Tier 1 single-car time trials, the Autonomous Tiger Racing team from Auburn University claimed victory with a fastest lap average of 163.6 mph. The IU Luddy team from Indiana University clocked in with a 158.0 mph lap average, and the Caltech Autonomous Systems and Technologies Racer team from California Institute of Technology had a 144.3 mph lap average. The latter two teams were new to the competition.

For the Tier 2 two-car passing competition, teams were challenged to demonstrate strategic racing and AI adaptability in close-quarter scenarios. Purdue AI Racing from Purdue University was edged out by the AI Racing Tech team from UC Berkeley, University of Hawai’i, UC San Diego, and Carnegie Mellon University, with the latter completing a 162-mph overtake in the final seconds of the last passing round.

The day culminated with the Tier 3 multi-car exhibition race, during which four autonomous racecars competed in an open format 20-lap race including five overtakes. The competition showcased the ability of AI drivers to manage high speeds, head-to-head passing, and multi-agent racing—and all teams finished the race events with no crashes. The race demonstrated the first use of autonomous push-to-pass, where the AI drivers had to strategically determine when to use the 30-s 25-mph boost during the race.

Competing in the race were Unimore Racing, Cavalier Autonomous Racing, PoliMOVE-MSU from Politecnico di Milano, Michigan State University, and University of Alabama, and team KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). The race ended in a thrilling side-by-side photo finish, with Unimore Racing crossing the finish line less than 0.3 s ahead of Cavalier Autonomous Racing.

The IAC series also exhibited at CES 2025, its display in the West Hall lobby featuring the AV-24 autonomous racecar platform used by the teams. Revealed at last year’s CES, the new platform represents a significant leap forward in autonomous hardware and software technology, and combined with the related simulation tools is helping to accelerate the development of AI drivers capable of operating autonomous racers safely at speeds greater than 190 mph (305 km/h).

The IAC engineering team collaborated with autonomous vehicle technology suppliers to develop its AV-24 robotics platform. Industry partners contributing to racecar development include Bridgestone, Luminar, Cisco, Continental, dSPACE, Marelli, New Eagle, NI, and VectorNav.

The IAC provided two patent-filed contributions in the form of a custom-engineered drive-by-wire system including a first-of-its-kind independent actuation for front and rear brakes and the modular design of the AV-24 integrated robotics system allowing for competent interchangeability and integration into other high-speed vehicle platforms.

IAC says its deeper collaboration with dSPACE on a high-fidelity SIL tool for improved AI driver training will accelerate the transfer of learning from simulation to the real world. The partnership will create digital twins of the IAC AV-24 and historic racetracks where IAC competes.

In addition to the competition and CES exhibit, the IAC is looking to strengthen its partnerships with government and industry.

Autonomous systems, including self-driving cars, unmanned aircraft, and humanoid robots, learn from modeling and simulation. However, the training process can take months to years and still has challenges accounting for all the uncertainty found in the real world. In the world of robotics, this is known as the simulation-to-real gap.

To improve this gap, the U.S. DOD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has implemented the Transfer Learning from Imprecise and Abstract Models to Autonomous Technologies (TIAMAT) program. DARPA has selected Indy Autonomous Challenge as an official test and evaluation platform for the TIAMAT program, which aims to develop rapid autonomy transfer techniques to enable same-day autonomy that is robust to the quick and inevitable changes in dynamic environments and adaptable to a variety of platforms and domains.

At CES, the IAC revealed a new commercial spinout focused on leveraging the IAC’s pioneering work in high-speed mobility and autonomous systems. Headquartered in Belgium at DronePort, an airport, business park, and test center for carbon-free and autonomous mobility, Aidoptation will focus on commercializing the IAC’s intellectual property, with backing from SFPIM, Belgium’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, and insurance company Ethias.

The new venture is aimed at bridging the gap between the IAC’s cutting-edge racetrack advancements and their practical applications in industries like autonomous vehicles, robotics, and high-speed mobility, setting the stage for a new era in physical AI solutions.