Drone on Bridgestone tires sets new record at Goodwood

At the Goodwood "Festival of Speed" in the UK, the AV-24 racing car set a new record for autonomous vehicles on the track, climbing the famous hill in 66.37 seconds at a maximum speed of 179 km/h. The previous record, held since 2019, was set by Roborace, whose DevBot 2.0 vehicle completed the distance in 66.96 seconds at a speed of up to 162.8 km/h.

IAC is an American non-profit organization that hosts autonomous racing car competitions with student participation, and the AV-24 was controlled by artificial intelligence software developed by the PoliMOVE-MSU team, created by the Milan Polytechnic University (PoliMi) and Michigan State University (MSU). Three runs were made, with the record being set during the third one.

“Over the past three years, IAC has been expanding the boundaries of what's possible for high-speed autonomous vehicles and setting new records,” said Paul Mitchell, IAC Board Chairman and President. “The Goodwood Hillclimb is a historically significant event that draws huge crowds and attracts a large global audience, which has now seen the potential of autonomous vehicles in terms of their safe operation on roads in the future.”

IAC's partner is Bridgestone, which noted that the Goodwood track is known for its complexity and narrowness, and the record run required "maximum control over traction and skidding," provided by Bridgestone racing tires. The PoliMOVE-MSU team worked closely with Bridgestone engineers before heading to Goodwood, and its members visited the company's technical center and testing ground in Rome. They also had the opportunity to explore all stages of tire production and evaluate their effectiveness on the racing track.

“We are proud to support the PoliMOVE-MSU team, which set an amazing record at the Festival of Speed,” said Sara Correa, Bridgestone's Director of Marketing in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. “We intend to continue collaborating with IAC and student engineers to further test and improve autonomous transportation technologies, including through such record-breaking runs. Motorsport is in our company's DNA, and it always will be, and what's especially important is that such experience gives us new knowledge that we use to create new solutions for sustainable mobility.”

The "Festival of Speed" also featured the participation of Pirelli, which, in particular, showcased its "smart" tires.