Politecnico di Milano starts testing autonomous cars on public roads

The brand new and iconic Maserati MC20 Cielo, duly equipped by the research team at the Politecnico di Milano with all the technological components required to make it autonomous, will race the full 1000 Miglia 2023, tackling some stretches in autonomous driving mode, in compliance with the Highway Code. The role of on-board 'supervisor' (required to experiment) will be entrusted to Matteo Marzotto, who will commemorate the 70th anniversary of his uncle Giannino's victory in the 1953 1000 Miglia.

The 2023 1000 Miglia is only the start of this ambitious project and will be followed by a year of intense testing and refinement of the technology, to race the full 1,500km of the 1000 Miglia in fully autonomous mode in 2024.

This trial is possible thanks to the authorisation granted on 6 June 2023 by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport to conduct autonomous driving tests on public roads, based on the ‘Smart Road’ Ministerial Decree 70/2018. In the history of this decree, this is only the second authorisation to be granted, and the first ever for such a varied and long-distance route.

The leader of the 1000-MAD project, Sergio Savaresi, professor of Automation at the Politecnico di Milano, said: "Obtaining this authorisation is already a very important milestone achieved by the project after almost a year of work, as it will enable the development of autonomous driving technology (i.e., all the automation and artificial intelligence algorithms capable of replacing the human driver) in a huge number of real-life situations on different types of roads, all along the route of the classic 1000 Miglia.

The project is in partnership with 1000 Miglia srl, with the patronage of MOST (National Centre for Sustainable Mobility) and sponsored by Movyon and Cisco, alongside contributions from numerous technical suppliers.

"With this project, the Politecnico di Milano establishes its position as a pioneer in the field of self-driving car technology, for the benefit of the entire national and international scientific and industrial community, with the ultimate aim of making an important contribution towards new models of sustainable mobility," says Donatella Sciuto, Rector of the Politecnico di Milano.