The Nio EP9 Just Clocked An Autonomous Lap Record, With A Slight Catch
Not content with smashing the electric Nurburgring record, the Nio has just bagged another headling-grabbing lap time with its EP9 hypercar. The lap in question? The fastest ever for an autonomous car around the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.
“Hold on,” you’re probably thinking. “What did it have to compete with?” The answer is, so far as we can see, nothing. So the EP9 could have happily trundled around at 30mph and still claimed the autonomous driving honours.
Except it didn’t just trundle around: the car lapped at speeds of up to 160mph, clocking a 2min 40.33sec effort. And thankfully, the Nio team saw fit to put that in some sort of context by lapping with a human behind the wheel, which resulted in a time of 2min 11.3sec and a top speed of 170mph.
That in itself is another record, as it makes the EP9 the fastest production car at COTA. Again, it didn’t have much in the way of competition for context. It’s about the same as a Moto2 bike, and about six to seven seconds off the pace of an LM GTE car.
So it’s no slouch for a 1800kg car, and although it’s packing a ridiculous 1341bhp, high-powered electric vehicles have heat management issues to think about when undertaking high-speed laps. In fact, during that Nurburgring record we talked about earlier, the EP9 wasn’t running at full power at any point to avoid overheating.
Just six EP9 hypercars will be made, with the intent of making a sort of statement. Nio is a sub brand of Chinese electric car firm NextEV which has ambitions that go much further than limited-run hypercars, although the company has thus far been relatively tight-lipped on its exact plans. For now, we’ll just enjoy the EP9 hypercar quietly tearing around the world’s race tracks.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Nice
Pretty cool how far we’ve come but we seriously need to stop before its to late
I’m calling it, this is top comment
Just found out that Cyberdyne Systems is only 70km from my home…. i’m doomed
https://www.google.ch/maps/place/Cyberdyne+Systems+GmbH/@47.1861859,8.4714253,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4790009073c56fdd:0xcf6ab7d50d26cbee!8m2!3d47.1861859!4d8.473614
Couldn’t agree more….
Autonomous lap times are the future Nürburgring lap times.
Cars used to be art. Human used to be the main component of the car. Cars used to be FOCUSED ON DRIVING EXPERIENCE. Until now.
What I see is that in the future we will be driven to work by autonomous cars, and then back at home watch autonomous cars racing.
Pointless.
There will be just a bunch of old-styled car enthusiasts. Society, most probably, will think that they have some kind of mental disorder.
Sad but true.
I wanna lay down and cry. A lot.
Yeees, and you are 100% objective, because the whole point of inventing a car was to make art… Grow up! Just because you like cars for their artistic merit and driving experience doesnt mean everybody does, I am pretty sure most people dont. Yes, many people probably will be driven to work by autonomous cars, so that the traffic is faster (thanks to a lack of inexperienced drivers driving) and they will be able to do productive things while travelling. Then they will come home and maybe watch autonomous car racing to appreciate the talent of genius engineers, OR they will switch the TV to classic racing and appreciate the talented drivers. You are exactly the kind of person that should never be allowed to make big decision in the name of society. Why do you call something pointless only because it doesnt fulfill your needs? As long as there are car enthusiasts in the world, there will be cars made for car enthusiast. Lorries are not made for driving experience. Do you call them pointless? Guess who delivers your car parts?
Society already thinks we are retards
You’re just fantasizing about some dream land that never existed in the first place.
Cars have always been, and always will be transportation devices. SOME cars used to be art and driving pleasure. But the majority were just A-B devices. Auto-companies are corporations; money is the prime objective.
The future will be just like the rest of car history: 95% of cars used for (autonomous) transport, and a small minority used for fun.
You’re being too damn negative, there are plenty of new cars being made that still focus on driving experience. Autonomous cars will be great because they will get all the idiots off the roads, and we’ll be able to have our own fun safer than ever.
Lets hope its better then the Forza Drivatars lol
Forza Drivatars: Crashing into everything since 2005
Let’s at least hope it’s better than Project Cars AI
Deep down in my heart, I hope that all autonomous cars are a massive disaster and they all stop being produced
Given how absurdly fast they are evolving, they are the future.
Is autonomous car must be an electric?
Don’t think so. I think they can also drive petrol engines
There is video with Audi with non electric car did lap around the track no driver In car
They dont need to be…but im guessing its easier to do with an electric
Google has been using hybrid Lexus’s for its auto driving tech
Will autonomous racing ever be as good as it is with humans? Niope.
Will it be as interesting? Maybe not
Cars will definitely be faster though.
Can’t wait for autonomous Formula 1
Dumb question
I still don’t understand why are autonomous cars so slow around racetracks
All you have to do is to program them to follow the perfect racing line and use the latest possible braking points? Ok, surely, they need to be able to countersteer etc if traction unexpectedly goes, but in my mind it still should be faster than a human simply because it has instant reaction time and in theory should never make mistakes in terms of braking and cornering
Or am I missing something?
A computer cannot really “read” the road as easy as a human can, at least that’s what I think.
That’s like saying all you have to do for surgery is cut open someone and fix stuff.
There are numerous unpredictable variables and autonomous tech is still in its infancy.
How does the computer know exactly where the best braking point is? How does the computer know when the car is this exact spot?
Every sensor has errors, there is no such thing as instant reaction time, and no computational model is perfect.