This video of Stanford’s self-driving DeLorean drifting is incredible

This morning, I came across a video from Stanford University’s YouTube channel—not my usual source of morning entertainment, but this was a video that frankly, astounded me. If you’re a fan of the Back to the Future series, Stanford’s version of the DeLorean DMC-12 (nicknamed “MARTY”) is literally a peek into the future.

Engineers at Stanford University’s Dynamic Design lab in the U.S. recently produced a gymkhana-style video of a DeLorean doing donuts in a circuit, and drifting in a figure of 8 around the track. The interesting bit? Two engineers were in the car throughout it all—but they weren’t driving.

Instead, the car is actually a self-driving (or self-drifting) car that is the result of Chris Gerdes, Jonathan Goh, and Tushar Goel. It’s all-electric, uses GPS and computer algorithms to “see”, and based on the video, is one hell of a driver.

The video is called “MARTYkhana”, and showcases how MARTY (the car) uses autonomous vehicle software that can help avoid accidents. According to Gerdes:

“The laws of physics will limit what the car can do, but we think the software should be capable of any possible maneuver within those limits. MARTY is another step in this direction, thanks to the passion and hard work of our students. Stanford builds great research by building great researchers.”

The name, MARTY, pays tribute to the Back to the Future movies, and stands for “Multiple Actuator Research Test bed for Yaw control”. The aim of the project is basically to further develop autonomous car control, as well as to study how automated vehicles interact with humans.

“While we aren’t picturing a future where every car produces clouds of white tire smoke during the daily commute, we do want automated vehicles that can decipher the subtle cues drivers give when driving and incorporate this feedback when planning motion.  Drifting is a way to study these larger questions, with style.”

Drifting is an art, as much as it is a skill, which is a point that the Stanford team acknowledges. But that’s sort of the point, and is one of the main reasons that they’ve chosen to focus on drifting for the DeLorean. According to Goh, autonomous cars need to be able to replicate this level of control to be “as good as the best drivers” around.

The end-goal here is also to have MARTY to compete against a professional drifter. And the takeaway for me? Self-driving cars will certainly be the norm at some point in the future—and they’ll certainly be better drivers than most of us.

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