Stanford Engineering and Toyota Research Institute achieve autonomous milestone 

Stanford Engineering researchers, in collaboration with the Toyota Research Institute, have achieved the world’s first fully autonomous tandem drift, with the goal of advancing the potential of AI to improve safety. Both cars, lead and chase, are driverless. Using only AI, the lead must plan and execute its line without human input. The chase car must follow suit and catch up quickly afterward. “We think what we have done here can be scaled up to tackle larger problems like automated driving in urban scenarios,” says Chris Gerdes, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering and one of the world’s leading authorities on autonomous vehicles.