Tandem drifting Toyotas show how AI might help drivers on slippery roads

Image: Toyota




Toyota Research Institute (TRI) and Stanford are plugging AI into two Supras that pull off Formula Drift-style tandem driving — but they’re looking for something more important than style points.


In a press release, TRI’s VP of human interactive driving, Avinash Balachandran, says that drifting two cars in tandem autonomously is a “milestone” and has “far-reaching implications for building advanced safety systems” in future passenger vehicles.


Beyond the impressive showing, which can be seen in a video, professor Chris Gerdes, who codirects the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford, says the physics of drifting is similar to the behavior of cars on snow or ice. Balachandran adds that the tech can kick in precisely in time to manage...



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