IAC at CES 2025 features first race with four autonomous cars at once

UNIMORE AI Racing edges out Cavalier AI Racing at the finish line at the IAC@CES event this week. | Credit: Indy Autonomous Challenge

The roar of engines in autonomous race cars returned to the Las Vegas Speedway on a blustery, cold Thursday. The now annual Indy Autonomous Challenge, or IAC, at CES kicked off with a familiar format: a thrilling head-to-head dual competition, where AI drivers — and their human programmers — would engage in a captivating game of catch and pass lap after lap, mirroring the competition of previous years.

The Indy Autonomous Challenge started in October 2021. Since then, the event organizers have expanded its format, and the university teams have set multiple speed records for land-based autonomous vehicles. IAC said it is a testbed for cutting-edge technologies that promise to improve autonomy for all vehicles.

The autonomous vehicle event started at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and has expanded to events in Europe. The IAC has found a home in Las Vegas during the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), attracting high-tech aficionados to the track to witness the high-speed competition.

This year witnessed a significant leap in competitiveness from veteran teams such as AI Racing Tech and Purdue AI Racing. In past competitions, both teams, along with their AI drivers, faced frustrating early exits.

However, this year, the IAC teams showcased remarkable improvement, culminating in a thrilling head-to-head session. AI Racing Tech, a team that includes members from my alma mater, the University of California San Diego, emerged victorious in this passing duel, demonstrating its enhanced capabilities.

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IAC puts on 20-lap race for self-driving cars

The highlight of the day was an exciting 20-lap race with four vehicles on the track. Since its inception, the IAC has promised to put more than two vehicles on the track at a time, but it has taken four years for the technology to mature.

The teams have steadily improved, and the newer race platform, introduced to competition in 2024, now has the features to support multi-car interaction on the track. All the IAC teams start with the same automotive and computing hardware and build their controls and autonomy stack on top of it.

The four teams selected to participate in the four-car event included PoliMOVE, KAIST, UNIMORE Racing, and Cavalier Autonomous Racing. KAIST (the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology) led the majority of the race until Cavalier passed it in Lap 15 after KAIST ran out of “push to pass” time.

UNIMORE (the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) passed KAIST a lap later, with all of the vehicles pushing average lap speeds typically of 100 mph (160 kph) or greater. The race couldn’t have a more nail-biting finish as UNIMORE won by two car lengths at the line.

The next event on the IAC calendar will be road racing at historic Monza in Italy in June 2025.

You can watch the entire replay of the event in the official livestream below.

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