Maserati has just achieved a groundbreaking milestone in autonomous driving, setting a new speed record at the iconic Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The stunning MC20 supercar reached an impressive 197.7 mph with no driver behind the wheel, marking a major leap forward for autonomous technology.

This remarkable feat is the result of a collaboration between the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) and Politecnico di Milano, Italy’s largest scientific and technological university. The partnership is pushing the boundaries of hardware, computing power, and artificial intelligence to explore the future of autonomous vehicles.

Politecnico di Milano, a leading institution in autonomous vehicle research, previously set a speed of 192.8 mph in its IAC AV-21 race car in 2022. However, this time, the team returned to one of the world’s longest runways—measuring 15,000 feet (2.8 miles)—to attempt to break that record with Maserati’s 630-horsepower MC20 street car. The team’s success in reaching nearly 200 mph without a driver is a testament to the robustness and reliability of the cutting-edge algorithms designed for autonomous driving. Professor Sergio Matteo Savaresi, the project’s scientific director, explained that this achievement highlights how far the team has come in perfecting autonomous driving technologies.

To further demonstrate the advancements made, the team also showcased the Maserati MC20 Cielo, a convertible version of the supercar fitted with lidar, camera, and sensor technology. This special version had already completed around 37 miles of the legendary 1000 Miglia road race in Italy—one of the most challenging courses—without a human at the wheel.

The MC20 Cielo was also part of the 1000 Miglia Experience Florida, where it paraded through the streets of Florida, representing “the excellence of Italian research,” according to the team. Interestingly, despite being an autonomous vehicle, the images from the event show a human driver seated in the car. Perhaps organizers were concerned about stirring up rivalry among Tesla enthusiasts. Regardless, Maserati’s achievement marks another significant milestone in the race toward fully autonomous vehicles.

By Impact Lab