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American defence contractor Anduril Industries has issued a global challenge under its new AI Grand Prix, a fully autonomous drone racing competition.
The international tournament, featuring both virtual and physical rounds, was reportedly conceived by Anduril founder Palmer Luckey as an open challenge to the boldest engineers from around the globe. A prize pool of US$500,000 and employment at Anduril have been offered for the competition.
The tournament rules will exclude both human pilots and hardware modifications, using only optimised coding to achieve the fastest times on fully autonomous, identical drones built by Neros Technologies, incorporating DCL’s Al vector module.
“Today we’re announcing the AI Grand Prix. The fully autonomous drone racing competition inviting the boldest engineers from around the globe to compete for $500,000 and a job at Anduril,” according to the public challenge from Anduril Industries.
“No human pilots. No hardware mods. Identical Neros Technologies drones. Software is the only path to victory.
“If you win, it’s because your autonomy stack is better. Full stop.
“Season 1 kicks off this spring, culminating in the AI Grand Prix Ohio in November 2026.”
The race series will be powered by the professional drone racing organisation, Drone Champions League, and will be open to both university and independent teams from across the world.
The race series will feature an initial virtual qualifier, a secondary virtual qualifier, a third physical qualifier, and finally a Grand Prix in Ohio.
