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Retrofitting a Mini Cooper
with an autonomy stack Modern car design offers many suitable options for sensor mounting. A classic Mini Cooper does not. Adam Rodnitzky • co-founder, Tangram Vision
For the past decade, an increasing number of self-driving test mules have plied the streets of Silicon Valley. Waymo. Zoox. Motional. Cruise. They’ve become so commonplace that residents like myself barely blink an eye when a Jaguar I-Pace outfitted with multiple LiDARs, cameras, and radar units glides by. But put those cars on a race track? Now that’s a spectacle. And that’s exactly what Joshua Schacter has done since 2016, when he launched Self Racing Cars (SRC). Since then, SRC has become an autonomous proving ground for companies big and small alike. SRC lets these companies, as well as hobbyists, students, and researchers, test the capabilities of their autonomous vehicles at California’s legendary Thunderhill race track. Vehicles are grouped into classes like fully autonomous, tele-operated, or human-driven but sensor equipped. During the event, each vehicle gets multiple opportunities to set lap times, capture data, test systems, and compete to see which vehicle can run the fastest autonomous lap. As an automotive enthusiast who has also worked in perception and sensors for nearly 15 years, being a part of SRC was not a matter of if, but when. Fortunately, participating with Tangram Vision was the perfect opportunity to head to the track and test new sensor streaming, fusion, and runtime modules that our team has been building over the past few months. But what vehicle to bring? As you may have seen om the main image of this article, the vehicle we chose is not a typical platform for autonomy or sensor testing. And, as it turns out, outfitting a classic Austin Mini Cooper with sensors is not a straightforward task. 54
November 2021
Retrofitting a Mini Cooper 2021_11_Vs2.indd 54
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THE ROBOT REPORT
11/3/21 2:15 PM
