WELCOME TO WISCONSIN AUTONOMOUS.
Wisconsin Autonomous is a premier student-run engineering team at UW–Madison building autonomous vehicle systems and fostering excellence in student innovation.
3rd
5 Year Overall AudoDrive Result
2nd
2025 and 2026 AutoDrive Result
3rd
evGrandPrix Result
2018
Founded at UW–Madison
Competitions
EcoCAR EV Challenge
A four-year Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition run by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors, Stellantis, and MathWorks. Re-engineering a production vehicle for efficiency and SAE Level 2+ autonomy.
AutoDrive Challenge II
SAE International and GM flagship collegiate competition. Built a Level 4 autonomous Chevrolet Bolt EUV navigating urban scenarios, pedestrians, and dynamic obstacles.
Building Autonomy, Shaping Engineers
From raw sensor photons to tires on asphalt.
Founded in 2019 at UW–Madison, Wisconsin Autonomous brings together over 150 student engineers building production-grade autonomous vehicles for elite collegiate competitions.
Perception
Computer Vision & Sensing
Camera and LiDAR pipelines, 3D object detection, semantic segmentation, and sensor fusion.
Controls & Planning
Behavior & Motion Execution
Trajectory generation, behavior arbitration, longitudinal and lateral control algorithms.
Systems & Electrical
Compute & Power Harnessing
High-performance compute platforms, custom wiring harnesses, and hardware safety interlocks.
Simulation
Virtual Testing & HIL Rigs
Synthetic scenario libraries, digital twin environments, and hardware-in-the-loop validation.
Business & Outreach
Sponsorships & Operations
Corporate sponsor relations, team finance, competition deliverables, marketing, and STEM community outreach.
History & Major Milestones
EcoCAR EV Challenge Begins
Selected as one of a small field of top North American universities to develop SAE Level 2+ automated drive features and energy-efficient connected mobility on a next-generation Cadillac LYRIQ / Chevy EV platform.
AutoDrive Challenge II
Four years developing a full-stack Level 4 autonomous Chevrolet Bolt EUV for SAE International and General Motors, advancing perception, controls, simulation, and hardware-in-the-loop validation.
evGrandPrix Autonomous Racing
Earned 3rd place podium in Purdue’s collegiate autonomous go-kart series, deploying high-speed path planning and obstacle avoidance algorithms entirely in software.
Indy Autonomous Challenge
Collaborated alongside Michigan State University in the international $1.5M autonomous racecar challenge at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Wisconsin Autonomous Founded
Founded by UW–Madison undergraduates with a single bold mission: build production-grade autonomous vehicle systems and provide students with real hands-on robotics engineering experience.
Corporate & Campus Partners
Wisconsin Autonomous is powered by generous software licenses, compute hardware, sensor donations, and financial backing from leading automotive, aerospace, robotics, and academic partners.
Corporate & Industry Partners
Campus & Department Partners
Interested in partnering with Wisconsin Autonomous?
Support next-generation engineering talent and showcase your technology on autonomous vehicles.
JOIN WISCONSIN AUTONOMOUS.
We accept undergraduate and graduate students across all engineering, computer science, data science, and business majors. No prior self-driving vehicle experience required.