Indy Autonomous Challenge Returns To Racing With Next Historic Competition Announced For Texas Motor Speedway In November

The Indy Autonomous Challenge Powered by Cisco at Texas Motor Speedway will run on November 11 and mark the IAC’s return to racing

Indianapolis, IN (Sept 29, 2022) – The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) today announced that after a record setting competition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last October, and making history at CES 2022 in January with the world’s first-ever, head-to-head autonomous racing competition, it will return to racing at another iconic track with “The Indy Autonomous Challenge Powered by Cisco” at the Texas Motor Speedway on Friday, November 11th.

Presenting sponsor Cisco Systems, Inc. (Cisco) will enable critical in-vehicle and car-to-trackside connectivity with Dallara AV-21 racecars using ultra-low latency wireless technology for the head-to-head autonomous racecar competition where nine IAC teams will seek to compete. Collaborating with partners like Cisco, the IAC is working to increase safety and performance in not only motorsports, but across all modes of commercial transportation.

“Our goal is to bring the brightest minds and top innovators of our time together at iconic racetracks around the world to push autonomous driving technology forward,” said Paul Mitchell, president, Indy Autonomous Challenge. “Through complex problem solving and first-of-its-kind engineering, our teams work with leading industry sponsors like Cisco to advance technology that will speed the commercialization of fully autonomous vehicles and deployments of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).”

Teams competing at the “Indy Autonomous Challenge Powered by Cisco” at Texas Motor Speedway will be operating Dallara AV-21 autonomous racecars equipped with a boosted engine package, capable of delivering 30% more horsepower than the last time they raced to push high-speed multi-agent racing to its limits. With its upgraded engine package, an IAC racecar programmed by team PoliMOVE from Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and the University of Alabama (USA) set a new land speed world record of 192.2 MPH at the historic Kennedy Space Center in April prompting the adoption of refreshed technology on all IAC racecars moving forward.

Cisco powers the in-vehicle networking and connectivity to and from the vehicles for race safety, telemetry data offload, and GPS timing alignment. The connectivity infrastructure includes Cisco Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul for highly reliable mobile connectivity and Cisco Catalyst Industrial Ethernet switches to connect in-vehicle sensors and on-board compute. The same Cisco technologies powering the IAC are used to connect and secure critical systems and improve operations across industries like manufacturing/industrial automation, roadways, and ports.

“Cisco is proud to be the presenting sponsor, for the second consecutive year, of the Indy Autonomous Challenge and bring the IAC to the Texas Motor Speedway, empowering academic innovation to further autonomous development and improve safety and performance,” said Wes Sylvester, Vice President, Cisco Industry Solutions Group. “We are committed to driving the future of connectivity forward for every type of automated industry, and you couldn’t ask for a more ideal testing and proving ground to push the boundaries of innovation than the Indy Autonomous Challenge.”

Teams arrived at Texas Motor Speedway on Sept 28 for an initial week of practice and will then return for practice October 24 through race day on November 11 where the competition will be live broadcast via Twitch in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Media interested in attending a practice or interviewing IAC teams or stakeholders, please contact Allison Fried at IAC@OneMoreVolley.com.

About IAC: The Indy Autonomous Challenge organizes racing competitions among university affiliated teams from around the world to program fully autonomous racecars and compete in a series of history-making events at iconic tracks. Based in Indiana, the IAC is working to establish a hub for performance automation in the state and is harnessing the power of innovative competitions to attract the best and the brightest minds from around the globe to further the state-of-the-art technology in safety and performance of automated vehicles. The IAC started as a $1 million prize competition with 41 university teams signing up to compete more than two years ago, representing top engineering and technology programs from 14 U.S. states and 11 countries.

Follow the IAC @IndyAChallenge and #IAC2022 on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram &  YouTube.

MEDIA RESOURCES:

·        Video of new land speed record, please credit “Indy Autonomous Challenge.”

·        Additional photos, videos and b-roll can be found in the IAC Press Kit

·        Cisco IoT and Indy Autonomous Challenge

MEDIA CONTACT:

·        Allison Fried, (IAC@onemorevolley.com)