About 2025 ACC Self-Driving Car Student Competition
The ACC Self-Driving Car Student Competition is a premier event held during the annual American Control Conference (ACC).
This competition challenges engineering students to design, develop, and demonstrate self-driving car skills and technologies. 2025, it will be held in Denver, CO, from July 8 to 10.
In this year’s competition, students will try to maximize their profits as an autonomous taxi service. They will need to navigate through the city to requested pick up and drop off coordinates. During the trip, they will encounter different traffic scenarios that they will need to solve while adhering to the rules of the road. Depending on their performance during the trip, the students will receive a rating for their ride that will influence the amount of money earned for the completion of the ride. Students will then receive additional ride requests and will try to maximize the amount of money they earn within a fixed timeframe.
Challenge
The 2025 competition is more than just a contest—it’s a launchpad for future engineers!
It is a fantastic opportunity for engineering students to apply their knowledge, innovate, and prepare for careers in self-driving technology and Applied AI.
- Skill Building through Immersive Learning: Sharpen essential skills in Applied AI, such as machine learning, visual processing, state estimation, and vehicle control, while solving complex, real-world problems.
- Multi-Stage Process: From virtual design and submission to algorithm validation on Quanser’s state-of-the-art QCar 2, the competition will culminate in an exciting on-site demonstration at ACC 2025!
- Simulates real-world driving demands: Pick tasks from the daily list and drive to complete as many as possible within the time limit with your QCar 2 to earn points!
- Real-Time Decision-making: Teams must build advanced control systems capable of navigating circuits, responding to stop signs and traffic signals, and avoiding obstacles in real-time.
- Hands-On Applications: Participants bring their virtual designs to life by deploying them on physical QCars, bridging the gap between theory and practice.
- Prestige and Recognition: Showcase your talent on a global stage, win awards, and enhance your academic and professional profile with notable achievements.
Important dates
- Team registration: Until Friday, January 31, 2025
- Stage 1 – Virtual competition: February – April 2025
- Stage 2 – Validation on QCar: April – June 2025
- Stage 3 – In-Person Competition: July 8-10, 2025
Application Stages
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1Stage 1 : Virtual Design & Submission - Starting Soon
As a registered student team, you automatically participate in stage 1. This is a qualifying stage so please submit your best result!
Teams will receive access to the QCar 2 digital twin (for free) through Quanser Interactive Labs (QLabs). The digital twin provides access to all the same sensors and actuators on the physical QCar 2. These sensors will behave in the same manner as the physical and are accessed through the same APIs that the physical uses.
Teams will be provided with basic scenarios to test their Self-Driving algorithms. These scenarios will serve as a starting point. Still, you are encouraged to develop more complex scenarios to highlight your self-driving algorithm’s capabilities for your video submission! Custom environments can be created in QLabs, so we encourage teams to get creative!
Teams will be ranked using the following criteria:
- Readiness of a Self-Driving algorithm based on the core principles as stated in the Core Principles of Self-Driving section.
- Accuracy of driving (staying within the lanes).
- Timely reaction to road signage and traffic controls while adhering to traffic laws as stated in the Traffic Controls Rules section.
- Clear and concise communication of Self-Driving concepts demonstrated in the video.
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2Stage 2 : Implementation of Self-Driving algorithm on the Physical QCar 2
A physical QCar will be provided to the teams that advanced to this stage for free.
Rules will be announced later.
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3Stage 3 : On-site demonstration and competition - In-person
The shortlisted teams will be invited to attend ACC 2025 in Denvor and participate in the on-site competition.
The Award Package for the winning team includes:
- A QCar 2 – The feature vehicle of Quanser’s Self-Driving Car Studio
- QLabs Virtual QCar – 1-year subscription to digital twin virtual environment
- $2,000 cash prize (divided between student team members)
- Golden QCar Trophy
Check Out These FAQs Before You Reach Out To Us!
We suggest having a supervising professor on the competition team who may help coordinate resources and orchestrate progress.
We do not have a specific limit on the number of people on each participating team. Based on the previous experience, a team has an average of 5 members.
Yes, we will email the supervising professor to follow up.
We strongly recommend nominating a Team Captain, and we will email your Team Captain. You can also connect us on LinkedIn, where you can find the most updated information on the competition.
Please email your specific requirements to studentcompetition@quanser.com.
There’s no fee for participating Stage 1 and Stage 2, teams advancing to Stage 2 will be responsible for their expense for Stage 3, including visa application fee (if needed), travel expenses to Denver, ACC conference registration, local spending in Denver, etc.
We strongly recommend doing so. Please start the visa applications as soon as you get the Stage 1 result. Please contact ACC 2025 for assistance.
We will be supporting ROS 2 Humble on Ubuntu 20.04, but teams may use any other software compatible with QCar 2 hardware with minimal support. Please see the Software Compatibility Requirements section of the handbook.