Indy Autonomous Challenge AI Drivers Will First Qualify Virtually

The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) at CES 2025 will be more challenging and competitive than ever as, for the first time, more than two of the world’s fastest autonomous racing cars will compete side-by-side at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

To ensure that the cars are safe and reliable in the real world during the Multicar Races set for Jan. 9, 2025, the 10 university teams competing in the IAC will first have to qualify their AI drivers in the virtual world in a software-in-the-loop environment from dSPACE.

dSPACE, a leading provider of simulation and validation solutions, is supporting the IAC as a software-in-the-loop technology sponsor. The company has provided all participating teams with its powerful SIMPHERA simulation solution—a powerful framework that includes simulation models, test automation, test analysis and the ability to integrate other components such as HIL simulators, the company noted in a press release.

Developed in close collaboration with the IAC engineering team, dSPACE’s Cloud Racing Services offer a virtual test environment that gives university teams access to a fully configurable framework. This solution, hosted on AWS Cloud, is specifically designed for automotive applications, allowing for flexible resource allocation and parallel execution of test scenarios, significantly speeding up the testing process.

For collaborative development and deployment, the IAC teams use a public project hosted on GitHub as part of a continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflow.

“Closing the sim-to-real gap is key to unlocking the full potential of our teams’ AI driver training for multicar racing,” says Paul Mitchell, chairman and president of Indy Autonomous Challenge. “Racing in the cloud services being developed in partnership with dSPACE is a powerful new tool that will accelerate the transfer of AI solutions from simulation to the racetrack.”

Previously, only two vehicles competed against each other in the IAC events, which have been held at historic racetracks in the U.S. and Europe. Moving forward, the Multicar Races will introduce more vehicles on the track, creating a much more complex and demanding environment for the AI driver software.

“Leading up to the race, our goal is to achieve maximum sim-to-real validation and to test the AI driver software in increasingly complex scenarios. SIMPHERA, our web-based, highly scalable solution for simulating and validating autonomous driving functions, is tailor-made for this task,” says Raimund Sprick, senior manager automated driving and software solutions at dSPACE.

dSPACE has been supporting the IAC as an on-vehicle computer technology sponsor since 2022, providing the AUTERA AutoBox for all vehicles. The central computer processes data from lidar and radar sensors as well as cameras and vehicle networks.

In early 2024, dSPACE expanded its partnership to become the official software-in-the-loop technology sponsor of the IAC.