Driverless racecar sets a new autonomous speed record

is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Look out: there’s a new fastest robot in the world. A Maserati MC20 Coupe with no one in the driver seat set a new land speed record for autonomous vehicles, reaching 197.7 mph (318 km/h) during an automotive event at the Kennedy Space Center last week. The Maserati was running self-driving software developed by Politecnico di Milano, Italy’s largest scientific-technological university. The team also worked with the Indy Autonomous Challenge, which most recently ran at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway during CES 2025. 197.7 > 192.2 In the shadow of NASA’s iconic Space Shuttles, the race car flew down the 2.8 mile runway at record-breaking speeds, surpassing the 192.2 mph record that was also held by Indy Autonomous Challenge and PoliMOVE, set by an IAC AV-21 race car in April 2022. The achievement is noteworthy, ... Read full article.