Who knew that drifting could actually help improve road safety? Well, the engineers at Toyota are putting that idea to the test with their new self-drifting GR Supra – the first car in the world that can drift all by itself!
Working with researchers from Stanford, Toyota set out to merge the skills of pro racing drivers with smart AI technology. The goal is to create advanced safety features that can kick in during extreme driving situations, almost like having a supercomputer as your co-pilot.
To make it happen, they analyzed the techniques of expert drifters to develop algorithms that allow the AI to replicate those slick moves. With this new self-drifting system, the Supra can deliberately lose traction and slide around turns while still maintaining control.
Why teach a car to get sideways? Well, Toyota points out that over 1 million people die in car crashes globally each year. By studying advanced car control skills like drifting, they can better understand how to recover from emergencies that everyday drivers aren’t equipped to handle.
To test it out, they took the 650 horsepower Supra drifting around the Thunderhill Raceway. The AI kicked in to stabilize the slides around the track – no human driver required!
This research is still in early stages, but Toyota hopes to someday incorporate this tech into safety features that give drivers an expert level of assistance. If your car starts to lose control, the AI co-pilot could step in to bring you back from the brink far better than the average person could.
Who knows – thanks to this research with drift pros, someday your Camry might be able to steer you out of a slippery spin like a pro racer! Toyota is pushing boundaries to make driving safer, and more fun too.
