The University of Hawaii will soon compete in the world's first head-to-head autonomous car racing competition.
The Autonomous Challenge at CES, or Consumer Electronics Show, will be held Jan. 7 in Las Vegas.
UH AI Racing Tech is one of nine teams from eight countries representing 19 universities competing in the single-elimination contest, UH said in a news release. The winner will take home more than $200,000.
“This is the first event and the first autonomous event that I think any of us are aware of where [there will] be head to head passing, so two cars will go out at the same time and in order, and they will attempt to pass each other," Gary Passon, UH AI Tech team principal said in a recorded statement.
The team is comprised of students and faculty from UH and the University of California, San Diego and was established through a UH Maui College course on autonomous vehicle technology in the spring of 2020.
UH AI Racing Tech hopes to improve on its sixth place finish at the Indy Autonomous Challenge, the first such racecar event, held Oct. 23 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the university said.
In autonomous racing, drivers are replaced with a variety of sensors – supported by a powerful computer – that act as the eyes and the ears of the vehicle, UH officials explained.
"The system is an example of artificial intelligence which requires engineers to create algorithms to program the car to generate human-like behaviors and interpret complex sensor data," according to university officials.
In Indianapolis, teams raced individually for the best time, but in the upcoming competition, which will be held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, two cars will race each other simultaneously on the same track and will have to pass the other car multiple times during the race.
Cars will not only have to autonomously navigate the track itself, but locate and pass another moving vehicle, according to the university.
The race will be live-streamed online and on Twitch at @IndyAChallenge. Coverage will begin at 10 a.m. HST.
