AUTONOMOUS RACE CAR COMPETITION

[Anchor Lead]

As part of the Consumer Electronics Show held over the weekend, a second edition of an autonomous race car competition also took place in Las Vegas. A Korean team fared superbly well recording a maximum speed of 210 kilometers per hour to finish 4th overall.

[Pkg]

An autonomous race car competition at the annual tech event CES, the Indy Autonomous Challenge was held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. A race car in blue and white from KAIST overtakes its Auburn University competitor in no time. The American team had been leading at a speed of 129 kilometers per hour. Some 30 seconds later, the rival team's car malfunctioned and came to a stop after which organizers also had KAIST stop its vehicle. It nearly crashed into the defense barricade but overcame the crisis and Korea advanced to the semifinals.

[Soundbite] Shim Hyun-chul(KAIST Professor) : "The U.S. team had some issues and the control tower stopped both of our cars. So we strongly protested."

The next team KAIST faced was the Polytechnic University of Milan, the winner of this year's challenge. KAIST ramped up the speed to 210 kilometers per hour and at one point, drove ahead of the Italian team. But the Polytechnic University of Milan had 11 members focused on the remote control function. Korea lost by a close call and failed to advance to the final round. Among the 25 teams that competed, KAIST had the smallest crew but gave an impressive performance, ending in the final four for the second straight year.

[Soundbite] Jeong Chan-yeong(KAIST race team captain)

As global competition heats up over autonomous driving technologies, events such as the CES autonomous challenge are drawing much attention. The team from KAIST took part in the event with no financial support to cover for its expenses from the government, university or corporate sponsorship. Despite difficult conditions, KAIST competed head to head with top ranking teams and achieved striking results.