Toyota Research Institute and Stanford Engineering achieve the world’s first fully autonomous Tandem Drift Sequence in Los ALTOS, California.
Takeaway Points
- Toyota Research Institute and Stanford Engineering achieve the world’s first fully autonomous Tandem Drift Sequence in Los ALTOS, California.
- an autonomous tandem drifting sequence, two vehicles—a lead car and a chase car—navigate a course at times within inches of each other while operating at the edge of control.
TRI and SE achieves World’s First Fully Autonomous Tandem Drift Sequence
Toyota Research Institute (TRI) and Stanford Engineering on Tuesday announced a world first in driving research: autonomously drifting two cars in tandem in Los ALTOS, California.
The two companies have collaborated, and for nearly seven years, the teams have worked together on research to make driving safer. The experiments automate a motorsports maneuver called “drifting,” where a driver precisely controls a vehicle’s direction after breaking traction by spinning the rear tires—a skill transferable to recovering from a slide on snow or ice, Toyota said.
Avinash Balachandran, vice president of TRI’s Human Interactive Driving division, said in a comment that their researchers came together to achieve one goal, which is making driving safer.
“Our researchers came together with one goal in mind – how to make driving safer. Now, utilizing the latest tools in AI, we can drift two cars in tandem autonomously. It is the most complex maneuver in motorsports, and reaching this milestone with autonomy means we can control cars dynamically at the extremes. This has far-reaching implications for building advanced safety systems into future automobiles,” Balachandran said.
Balachandran added, “When your car begins to skid or slide, you rely solely on your driving skills to avoid colliding with another vehicle, tree, or obstacle. An average driver struggles to manage these extreme circumstances, and a split second can mean the difference between life and death. This new technology can kick in precisely in time to safeguard a driver and manage a loss of control, just as an expert drifter would.”
Chris Gerdes, professor of mechanical engineering and co-director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS), said, “The physics of drifting are actually similar to what a car might experience on snow or ice.. What we have learned from this autonomous drifting project has already led to new techniques for controlling automated vehicles safely on ice. The track conditions can change dramatically over a few minutes when the sun goes down. The AI we developed for this project learns from every trip we have taken to the track to handle this variation.”
Gerdes added, “Doing what has never been done before truly shows what is possible. If we can do this, just imagine what we can do to make cars safer.”
Toyota explained, saying that in an autonomous tandem drifting sequence, two vehicles—a lead car and a chase car—navigate a course at times within inches of each other while operating at the edge of control. The team used modern techniques to build the vehicle’s AI, including a neural network tire model that allowed it to learn from experience, much like an expert driver.
Car crashes occur in more than 40,000 fatalities in the US and about 1.35 million fatalities worldwide every year, and many of these incidents happen because of a loss of vehicle control in sudden, dynamic situations. Autonomy holds tremendous promise for assisting drivers to react correctly, the company said in a comment.
Experiments were conducted at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, California, using two modified GR Supras: algorithms on the lead car were developed at TRI, while Stanford engineers developed those on the chase car, Toyota said.
