The incident occurred during the final of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) at the Imola circuit in Italy. Two autonomous race cars collided at a speed of approximately 250 km/h (155 mph) in the Rivazza turn sequence. No injuries were reported as the vehicles were unmanned.
The collision was triggered when the Gianna car, operated by the Unimore team, initiated an emergency stop following a total loss of lidar and radar data. The trailing Eva car from the PoliMove team attempted an evasive maneuver 1.5 seconds before impact, but mechanical latency and inertia made the collision unavoidable.
Only two out of five participating cars completed the race. The Kinetiz team from the UAE secured victory, followed by Constructor Racing from Germany. The TUM team, considered a favorite, retired during the warm-up lap due to a seized rear left brake.
Teams had nine days of training on the track under adverse weather conditions, including rain and hail. Organizers noted that the event serves as a testing ground for autonomous systems, focusing on sensor failure management, emergency braking prediction, and hardware cooling under extreme temperatures.
