Auburns students bring autonomous Indy car to Rocket City

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) – Auburn University students came to Rocket City to show off a new fully autonomous Indy car.

The students used computers and sensors, which means that there is no need for a driver. The car brakes, throttles and steers itself. The sensors can even detect other vehicles on the road to avoid an accident.

Team leader Stephanie Meyer says the machine must calculate hundreds of things every second.

“As soon as we get close to the curb and have to make major changes or more common[ly]we’re going to get into another race car, well that’s when the system really kicks in,” Meyer said. “We’ll have to see where that other car is, see how fast it’s going, try to be in the near future. how it’s going to move and figure out what we need to do to get through it.”

The team races other independent Indy cars around the country. To date, the team has competed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway as part of the Indy Autonomous Challenge.

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