Mario Kart made you the driver you are today, and researchers think it could do the same for self-driving cars – Jalopnik

Now in its eleventh installment, and more than thirty years after its initial release, some science nerds have finally discovered Nintendo’s Mario Kart. They use it to ‘guide the future of autonomous driving’ WTOP News reports. Among the small army of engineers working to make self-driving cars actually self-driving, researchers at the University of Maryland are using the video game to verify the feasibility of autonomous driving programs before moving on to real-world testing.

“Researchers at the University of Maryland are essentially putting the joystick and controller into the virtual hands of autonomous driving programs before testing them on the road. ‘We’re actually using these automated driving systems to figure out how to verify that the systems are correct, and then make sure they follow the rules of the road, and design ways we can improve them if they don’t.'”

While the winner in Mario Kart isn’t always the safest driver, the early stages of the autonomous training process involve Mario completing a flawless lap around the course without taking any risks, crashing into anything or veering off course. As the autonomous driving program is tested at the controls, it is assessed how well it is performing and program developers use that feedback to improve the autonomous driving programming.

Mumu Xu, associate professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Marylandis co-leading the project with the help of several graduate and undergraduate university students. The project, funded by the US Naval Air Warfare Center’s Aircraft Division, hopes to increase the safety of autonomous cars “through an AI technique called deep reinforcement learning.”

“Using Mario Kart and other racing video games to train self-driving systems is not new, but most software engineers design them for maximum speed while neglecting safety, Xu said.”

The UMD process involves reconfiguring Nintendo’s relatively simplistic, 33-year-old, publicly available program code so that an autonomous AI program can operate it. Xu says the AI ​​program initially “drove stupidly,” but after millions of laps learned to avoid spinouts and slowdowns. The system deducts points for erratic driving, while awarding extra points for passing checkpoints, prioritizing precision over speed.

Of the six recognized levels of automated driving, only the lowest are available for cars on U.S. roads. The generally approved levels for use are zero through two in the US, with zero meaning no automation, while level two includes hands-free systems used under certain circumstances with an attentive driver. Mercedes-Benz has been approved to sell Level 3 in certain states.