INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana University’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering is teaming up with CODE19 racing, an Indianapolis-based autonomous racing franchise, to develop an AI-driven car.

Professor Lantao Liu is leading the research at his vehicle autonomy and intelligence lab.

“IU Luddy school will be responsible for programming or developing the AI driver, meaning that we will eventually need to accomplish a full stack of code,” said Liu.

The code will mimic every possible move a real driver could make on the track such as speeding up, slowing down, switching lanes, or passing another car.

“The decision will be computed from the AI driver to replace human decisions, so the car can drive on the track a very similar way as human drivers,” said Liu.

The finished product looks exactly the same as a human driven race car, only there is no cockpit.

“We want to challenge the AI limits, and we want to push the boundaries for the research for AI driver, and the second motivation is to help education at IU,” said Liu.

IU undergraduate and graduate students are working under PHD students on this project. They break down into teams, each responsible for developing a component of the car.

“If we regard the racing car event as an exciting sport, we want to see whether that AI driver will eventually reach the level of a human driver, or even go beyond that way,” said Liu.

Once the car is built, the Luddy School will race it against other AI-powered cars, and even human race car drivers around the world.