Human beats autonomous racing system by 17 seconds

(ECNS) Chinese racer Ma Jianxin was faster than the autonomous racing system Tianyuan by 17 seconds at an event held in Zhuzhou, central China’s Hunan Province, on Sunday.

As part of proceedings, Tianyuan faced Ma and British racer Robert Hoff. In the first round of four laps against Ma, Tianyuan set a new record, but a mechanical failure in the sixth lap interrupted the race, leaving Hoff, on his warm-up, with no score. The final lap times for Tianyuan and Ma were 2 minutes and 33 seconds, as well as 2 minutes and 16 seconds, respectively.

Developed by Gaosheng Qingdong, Tianyuan employs the integrated BeiDou navigation system, artificial intelligence, machine vision, automatic control and other cutting-edge technologies. The BeiDou navigation technology helps the autonomous racing system with positioning, path planning, obstacle avoidance and speed control.

Tianyuan made its debut at the Zhuzhou International Circuit on Sept. 28 with a 3.77-kilometer lap completed in three and a half minutes. It was about one minute faster in the latest race.

It took less than a month for Tianyuan to achieve such a lap time, but it took Ma about five years, Ma said.

“Driverless technology will definitely support the development of the racing field and the automobile industry in the future,” she said.

Hoff said he would be glad to share with Tianyuan his racing data to help it make further breakthroughs.