If you may recall, a spy shot previously captured Xiaomi’s YU7 GT running laps at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, a famous racetrack in Germany. Recently, the tech giant revealed that the car was racing on the track once again, crossing the finish line at 10:29.483. While not the fastest, what makes this record so important is that the car was able to complete the 20.8km track without human intervention.
Yes, Xiaomi’s YU7 GT was able to set the world’s first and only autonomous lap record at the renowned raceway. Of course, to achieve such a feat, the self-driving car came with the Track Package alongside additional sensors for autonomy.
In the full, uncut video that Xiaomi released, the automated YU7 GT was able to hit a top speed of 210km/h. While impressive, it falls short of the human racers who were able to achieve a top speed of 299km/h. If anything, this acts more as a proof of concept, showing that the technology is capable of handling difficult tracks and changing elevations.
Paultan.org noted that the automated EV missed most apexes on the track and was braking a lot sooner and was quite soft when accelerating. That said, the publication did note that there’s still plenty of potential on tap.
Meanwhile, Xiaomi says the driving system is built on an end-to-end architecture and a vehicle dynamics model. According to the brand, this allows for “real-time perception of vehicle states and road conditions while making control decisions through dynamic prediction”. As a result, it is still able to operate under high-speed and high-load conditions, or so the tech giant says. Xiaomi adds that it remains committed to advancing autonomous driving for a safer mobility experience for users nationwide.
To get a better grasp of how it was performing, the Xiaomi SUV comes with two electric motors that output 738 kW and 1,068 newton-metres of torque. It also comes with air suspension with dual-valve adaptive dampers, an electronic rear limited-slip differential and Akebono carbon ceramic brakes with six-piston front callipers.
(Source: Xiaomi, paultan.org)
