EVwire brief: The Xiaomi YU7 GT has set what Xiaomi calls the world's first autonomous-driving lap record at Germany's Nürburgring Nordschleife, completing the 20.8 km (12.9 mi) circuit in 10 minutes, 29.483 seconds with no one at the wheel.
The run is about three minutes off the production-SUV record a professional driver set in the same car in May. However, no production SUV had lapped the Nordschleife on its own before, with the car handling the steering, braking, and racing line itself. Xiaomi called the lap "a new starting point rather than an end point."
Here’s a video of the whole run, as shared by our friend @DriveGreen80167 on X.
The Nordschleife is the reason the time matters. The 20.8 km (12.9 mi) loop through the Eifel mountains, nicknamed the Green Hell, packs in more than 150 corners and ranks as the industry's ultimate test of a car's handling. Doing it driverless means the car's perception, decision-making, and control systems all have to hold up, blind crests and corners included.
For a sense of pace, a professional in the same YU7 GT lapped the Nordschleife in 7:22.755 in May. The fastest production car ever, the Mercedes-AMG One, needed 6:29.090, and the outright record, set by a Le Mans-derived Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo, stands at 5:19.55. Xiaomi's own SU7 Ultra holds the four-door production record at 7:04.957.
A lap time of 7:22.755 around the Nurburgring is high-performance car territory
Measured against those, a self-driven 10:29 is well off the pace. That said, 10:29 is roughly the pace the fastest Grand Prix cars managed here in the mid-1930s. To accomplish a comparable lap without anyone inside the car is impressive on its own right.
Context:
The YU7 GT is no slouch on paper. Xiaomi launched the sports-car-grade SUV on May 21 from 389,900 yuan ($57,580), with a dual-motor system making 1,003 PS (738 kW), a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) sprint of 2.92 seconds, and a 300 km/h (186 mph) top speed.
The lap times of autonomous cars in the Nurburgring will only get better from here
The record is as much marketing as engineering. In China's premium EV market, smart-driving ability has become a core selling point, and a driverless lap of the Green Hell is a hard flex to ignore. The YU7 line is Xiaomi's Model Y rival, and the company has chased headline laps at the Nürburgring before.
Three minutes off a pro sounds like a lot, until you flip it around. This is the slowest an autonomous car will ever lap the Nürburgring. Every version from here gets quicker.
Source: CNEVPost
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