Stanford Has An All-Electric DeLorean Called “M.A.R.T.Y.” That Can Autonomously Drift


Stanford Has An All-Electric DeLorean Called “M.A.R.T.Y.” That Can Autonomously Drift

On October 21st, 2015, fans of the “Back To The Future” franchise celebrated the day in which Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown arrive in the future. We here at BangShift, however, were oblivious up until we awoke and realized that we had completely missed the opportunity to share tons upon tons of stories about Brian’s favorite Irish sports car. But what could we show that we hadn’t already seen? We’ve seen fast DeLoreans, V8-powered Deloreans, a DeLorean documentary…no, that wouldn’t do. We had to find something new, something intriguing. And since nobody has built a Pro Mod DMC-12 yet, we were stumped.

Randal Burns, aka TheSilverBuick, was quick to help us out by sending us this footage of Stanford University’s latest creation. Dubbed M.A.R.T.Y. (Multiple Actuator Research Test bed for Yaw control), the DMC-12 is a fully-electric, autonomous-capable machine that was developed to test out autonomous driving that was capable of accident avoidance by yaw control…er, drifting. We’re not kidding in the least, MARTY is designed to self-drive like a rally driver would, back end out and all.

MARTY2

“In our work developing autonomous driving algorithms, we’ve found that sometimes you need to sacrifice stability to turn sharply and avoid accidents,” Chris Gerdes, a professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford, said in a news release. “The very best rally car drivers do this all this time, sacrificing stability so they can use all of the car’s capabilities to avoid obstacles and negotiate tight turns at speed. Their confidence in their ability to control the car opens up new possibilities for the car’s motion.” It also means that the riders inside had better be prepared for the maneuver, because this is the polar opposite of Cadillac’s SuperCruise system. This DeLorean doesn’t just stay between the lines, it is perfectly capable of making plenty of it’s own via a Renovo electric drive system and the supplied Bridgestone tires. Forget 88 miles an hour…this DeLorean will show you some serious shit without your help, thank you much!


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3 thoughts on “Stanford Has An All-Electric DeLorean Called “M.A.R.T.Y.” That Can Autonomously Drift

  1. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    What’s all this global hysteria about this date?

    The film was a pile of crap and should never have had a first part let alone another sequel I bet that old coke dealer John Z made a fortune out of royalties every time his cars appeared in the films…

    But his cars are soooo cool and I love the wheel/tyre combo on this one.

    1. Nick D.

      Sorry, Geordie, but the original was comedy gold. I felt like each sequel was a little less good but still entertaining.

      As for the car before us, doesn’t it drifting count as the Electric Slide? Heh. Sorry.

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