Singapore-UAE team wins autonomous car race in Italy on third attempt

Team Kinetiz with their autonomous race car after placing first in the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League’s race at Italy’s Imola Circuit on Sept 5.

Published Sep 20, 2026, 05:00 AM

Updated Sep 20, 2026, 05:00 AM

Team Kinetiz from NTU, UAE firm K2, and Alp Autonomy won the first international autonomous car race in Italy, improving from previous years by refining their algorithms through experience.

The race at Imola Circuit posed unique challenges like elevation and narrow tracks, testing autonomous systems' ability to manage grip, traffic, and overtaking under pressure.

The victory highlights NTU's AI research strength and offers insights to advance autonomous technology adoption in Singapore and beyond.

SINGAPORE – Third time’s the charm for a team that included staff and students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), which won an autonomous car race in Italy on its third attempt despite a more challenging circuit than before.

Team Kinetiz – comprising members from NTU, United Arab Emirates tech firm K2 and autonomous systems specialist Alp Autonomy – beat four other competitors for the Sept 5 victory at the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL).

During the inaugural A2RL race in 2024, Team Kinetiz failed to make the final four after placing sixth in a pre-qualifying round .

Its fortunes improved during the 2025 race, winning the Sim-Sprint virtual racing event and eventually placing fourth in the grand final.

There was no “magic algorithm” that led to Kinetiz’s win this time, said NTU team lead Holden Li, an associate professor from the university’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Instead, the team learnt from data gathered from its previous experiences, refining its algorithms and improving its performance along the way.

“I would say that these three consecutive years of accumulated experience made an enormous difference,” Li said.

He noted the team managed to triumph despite the challenges posed by the 2026 circuit, which has elevation changes and bumps, unlike the mostly flat nature of Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit, where the race was previously held.

The 4.9km-long Imola Circuit in northern Italy hosted the A2RL for the first time.

Imola’s challenges included narrow racing lines and difficult overtaking zones, testing “how autonomous systems manage grip, traffic, positioning and overtaking under sustained pressure”, race organiser Aspire said in a statement.

“Imola raised the level of the challenge, asking autonomous systems to race wheel-to-wheel in a completely different environment and generating valuable data to accelerate the next stage of R&D,” said Stephane Timpano, chief executive of Aspire, the business development and programme management arm of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology and Research Council.

“What we saw here gives us a new measure of how these systems perform and adapt under pressure.”

Among the league’s objectives is the promotion of greater safety and wider adoption of self-driving technology.

Teams race identical driverless cars equipped with cameras, lidar (light detection and ranging) sensors, radar and a navigation system. The vehicles can reach speeds of up to 300kmh.

Each team develops software that controls the car and makes real-time decisions on acceleration, braking, steering and reacting to other cars on the track, based on data from the sensors.

The A2RL race was held as part of the ACI racing weekend – a major event on the Italian motorsport calendar – together with traditional formula racing championships, the Formula Regional European Championship and the Italian F4 Championship.

The other teams that took part were the previous winner, TUM from Germany’s Technical University of Munich; Constructor Racing, also from Germany; PoliMOVE from Italy’s Politecnico di Milano; and Unimore Racing from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, also from Italy.

Team Kinetiz came in 10.963 seconds ahead of second-placed Constructor Racing.

TUM, which won the first two A2RL races in 2024 and 2025, hit a technical issue, finishing fifth.

Unimore Racing, which had an early lead, also encountered a technical problem and slowed down, resulting in a collision with PoliMOVE’s car, eliminating both teams.

Kinetiz team principal Omar AlQassim, who is director of partnerships and acquisitions at K2, said: “It’s a very proud moment for all of us at Team Kinetiz to win A2RL’s first international race and, most importantly, to represent the UAE on an international stage.”

“The team has worked extremely hard for this achievement, and seeing that effort result in a win makes it even more special.”

NTU’s vice-president for innovation and entrepreneurship Louis Phee said the win was a “testament to NTU’s standing as one of the world’s leading universities in artificial-intelligence research”.

“By combining NTU’s research capabilities with strong industry partners, our researchers can compete and win against the best teams in the world and help advance technologies that could shape the future of autonomous mobility,” he said.

NTU’s Li said the team’s experiences could have broader implications for Singapore, which has been pushing for greater adoption of autonomous technology.

“We want to translate what we have learnt into broader applications for autonomous systems and robotics for Singapore.”

Zhaki Abdullah is a correspondent at The Straits Times. He is on the health beat, in addition to occasionally covering science, environmental, tech and Muslim affairs issues.

Self-driving vehicles

United Arab Emirates

9 月 5 日，Kinetiz 车队驾驶他们的自动驾驶赛车在意大利伊莫拉赛道举行的阿布扎比​​自动驾驶赛车联盟比赛中获得第一名。

发布于 2026 年 9 月 20 日上午 5:00

更新于2026年9月20日 上午5:00

来自南洋理工大学的Kinetiz团队、阿联酋公司K2和Alp Autonomy团队赢得了在意大利举行的首届国际自动驾驶汽车大赛，他们通过经验改进算法，比往年取得了进步。

伊莫拉赛道的比赛带来了独特的挑战，例如海拔落差和狭窄的赛道，考验着自动驾驶系统在压力下管理抓地力、交通状况和超车的能力。

此次胜利凸显了南洋理工大学在人工智能领域的研究实力，并为推进新加坡及其他地区自动驾驶技术的应用提供了借鉴。

新加坡——由南洋理工大学（NTU）的教职工和学生组成的团队第三次参加意大利的自动驾驶汽车比赛，终于取得了胜利，尽管赛道比以往更具挑战性。

由南洋理工大学、阿联酋科技公司 K2 和自动驾驶系统专家 Alp Autonomy 的成员组成的 Team Kinetiz 车队在 9 月 5 日的阿布扎比​​自动驾驶赛车联赛 (A2RL) 中击败了其他四位竞争对手，取得了胜利。

在 2024 年首届 A2RL 比赛中，Kinetiz 车队在预选赛中获得第六名，未能进入最终四强。

在 2025 年的比赛中，它的运气有所好转，赢得了 Sim-Sprint 虚拟赛车比赛，并最终在总决赛中获得第四名。

南洋理工大学机械与航空航天工程学院副教授、团队负责人李霍尔登表示，Kinetiz 这次获胜并没有什么“神奇的算法”。

相反，该团队从以往经验中收集的数据中学习，不断改进算法，从而提高性能。

李说：“我认为这三年积累的经验产生了巨大的影响。”

他指出，尽管 2026 年的赛道充满挑战，且有高低起伏，与之前举办比赛的阿布扎比​​亚斯码头赛道基本平坦的地形不同，但车队还是取得了胜利。

位于意大利北部的伊莫拉赛道全长 4.9 公里，首次举办了 A2RL 赛事。

伊莫拉赛道的挑战包括狭窄的赛车线和困难的超车区域，这将考验“自动驾驶系统如何在持续压力下管理抓地力、交通、位置和超车”，赛事组织方 Aspire 在一份声明中表示。

“伊莫拉赛道提高了挑战的难度，要求自动驾驶系统在完全不同的环境中进行轮对轮的比赛，并产生宝贵的数据，以加速下一阶段的研发，”阿布扎比先进技术与研究委员会的业务发展和项目管理部门 Aspire 的首席执行官 Stephane Timpano 表示。

“我们在这里看到的现象，为我们衡量这些系统在压力下的性能和适应能力提供了新的标准。”

该联盟的目标之一是促进自动驾驶技术的安全性和更广泛应用。

各参赛队伍驾驶着相同的无人驾驶赛车，这些赛车配备了摄像头、激光雷达（光探测和测距）传感器、雷达和导航系统。赛车最高时速可达300公里。

每个团队都会开发控制赛车的软件，并根据传感器数据实时做出加速、制动、转向以及对赛道上其他赛车做出反应的决策。

A2RL 比赛是 ACI 赛车周末的一部分，这是意大利赛车运动日历上的一项重大赛事，​​同时还有传统的方程式赛车锦标赛、欧洲区域方程式锦标赛和意大利 F4 锦标赛。

其他参赛队伍包括：上届冠军德国慕尼黑工业大学的 TUM 队；同样来自德国的 Constructor Racing 队；来自意大利米兰理工大学的 PoliMOVE 队；以及同样来自意大利摩德纳和雷焦艾米利亚大学的 Unimore Racing 队。

Team Kinetiz 领先第二名 Constructor Racing 10.963 秒。

慕尼黑工业大学 (TUM) 曾赢得 2024 年和 2025 年的前两届 A2RL 比赛，但在比赛中遭遇技术问题，最终获得第五名。

Unimore Racing 车队一度领先，但随后也遇到了技术问题，速度减慢，结果与 PoliMOVE 车队的赛车发生碰撞，两支车队均被淘汰。

Kinetiz 车队负责人 Omar AlQassim（同时也是 K2 的合作关系与收购总监）表示：“对于我们 Kinetiz 车队的所有人来说，赢得 A2RL 的首场国际比赛，更重要的是，代表阿联酋登上国际舞台，这是一个非常值得骄傲的时刻。”

“团队为取得这一成就付出了巨大的努力，看到努力最终转化为胜利，这让胜利更加意义非凡。”

南洋理工大学负责创新和创业的副校长路易斯·菲表示，此次获奖“证明了南洋理工大学在人工智能研究领域作为世界领先大学之一的地位”。

他说：“通过将南洋理工大学的研究能力与强大的行业合作伙伴相结合，我们的研究人员可以与世界上最优秀的团队竞争并取得胜利，并帮助推进可能塑造未来自动驾驶出行的技术。”

南洋理工大学的李教授表示，该团队的经验可能对新加坡具有更广泛的意义，新加坡一直在推动更广泛地采用自动驾驶技术。

“我们希望将我们所学到的知识转化为新加坡自主系统和机器人技术的更广泛应用。”

扎基·阿卜杜拉是《海峡时报》的记者。他主要负责健康新闻报道，偶尔也报道科学、环境、科技和穆斯林事务等议题。

自动驾驶汽车

阿拉伯联合酋长国