Most manufacturers come to the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit to validate the performance of their cars. Xiaomi, on the other hand, used the Green Hell to highlight just how far autonomous driving systems have come in processing complex driving situations.

The Chinese EV manufacturer has successfully navigated the YU7 GT in full autonomous mode around the 20.832 km circuit, posting a lap of 10:29.483. This makes Xiaomi the first ever brand to post a driverless lap record of the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

Based on the video, the YU7 GT fitted with the Track Package was reaching speeds up to 150 km/h on the infield of Nurburgring Nordschleife. As the EV reached the iconic Dottinger Hohe back straight of the legendary circuit, it was able to stretch its legs further and reach 210 km/h.

The autonomous driving capability of the Xiaomi YU7 GT was made possible by the combination of the nVidia Drive AGX Thor computing platform, which includes LiDAR and 4D millimeter wave radar. 

Xiaomi’s autonomous driving system is built on an end-to-end architecture and a vehicle dynamics model, enabling real-time perception of vehicle states and road conditions while making control decisions through dynamic prediction. Under high-speed and high-load conditions, the system continuously coordinates steering, braking, and power delivery to maintain vehicle stability.

While the record was nowhere near the 7-minute lap that the YU7 GT can do with a human driver, it’s still a great engineering feat as the vehicle was able to lap the circuit without any human intervention.

Following this achievement, the Nurburgring has added a new official category for autonomous driving. The record can only go faster from here on out.