LAS VEGAS — The University of Hawai‘i‘s autonomous race car team finished in third place at the Autonomous Challenge @ CES (formerly the Consumer Electronics Show) in what one team member described as a “roller coaster” competition on Jan. 7 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Among nine teams that were invited to the challenge, six participated in time trials, including UH AI Racing Tech.
The team finished sixth in time trials and was set to race against the third seed TII EuroRacing in the quarterfinals.
However, UH AI Racing Tech encountered an intermittent mechanical issue.
The organizers automatically advanced TII EuroRacing into the semifinals, but, prior to its semifinal race, TII EuroRacing faced an issue of its own.
Since UH AI Racing Tech was able to overcome its mechanical issue, according to race bylaws, organizers modified the schedule and bracket, and UH AI Racing Tech was able to race for third place against MIT–PITT–RW (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pittsburgh, Rochester Institute of Technology and University of Waterloo), which defeated KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) in the quarterfinals.
In its match against MIT–PITT–RW, UH AI Racing Tech made several passes at speeds of more than 125 mph, while MIT–PITT–RW was unable to make its pass at 135 mph, giving UH AI Racing Tech the victory.
This was UH AI Racing Tech’s second consecutive appearance at the Autonomous Challenge @ CES.
The team was coming off of a second place finish at the Indy Autonomous Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 11, 2022.
“We took second place in November … and I think there were some questions as to whether we really were the better team. Today really proved that we do have the strength to come out here and absolutely crush it,” said C.K. Wolfe, UH AI Racing Tech member and UC Berkeley graduate student.
The program is self-described as developing “advanced artificial intelligence supporting high speed autonomous racing.”
UH AI Racing Tech is a collaboration between UH Maui College, UH Manoa College of Engineering, University of California at San Diego and Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon University.
PoliMOVE out of Italy defended its Autonomous Challenge @ CES title, winning the inaugural event in 2022.
