Driving sideways to move forward: Stanford engineers show how an autonomous, drifting DeLorean can improve driver safety

MARTY, the autonomous drifting DeLorean. (Image credit: Jonathan Goh)

The team from Chris Gerdes’ Dynamic Design Lab are training MARTY, an all-electric, autonomous DeLorean, to use all the friction between the tire and the road to get the vehicle out of harm’s way to handle emergency maneuvers or slippery road surfaces. The MARTYkhana video shows the autonomous control system developed by DDL’s Jon Goh and Tushar Goel applying drifting skills in an intense driving course that only top human drivers can reliably handle.