This Electric SuperCar Broke A Track Record With No Human Driver

The NIO EP9 isn’t just setting records…it’s doing it without human drivers. Last month it set lap records at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas – one of which was the fastest production car EVER to run there. But after that it set a driverless lap record for that track, too. Jalopnik reports that NIO claims it’s the fastest electric, autonomous car ever.

The car lapped COTA in 2 minutes and 40 seconds without a driver or any human intervention at all and hit a top speed of 160 miles per hour. The lap was driven by software developed by NIO engineers. Now, if you’re going to own a supercar chances are because you want to drive it…and drive it fast. So they put a driver behind the wheel and the EP9 lapped the same track at 2 minutes and 11 seconds at a top speed of 170 miles per hour. The car has 4 inboard motors each with individual gearboxes that put out 1,342 brake horsepower based on stats from NIO.

The car is capable of 194 mph top speed and can accelerate from 0-124mph in just 7.1 seconds. And that’s not all. The EP9 set another record at the Nurburgring. The 7 minute 5 second lap gave it the title of the world’s fastest electric car. What do you think? Should a supercar be autonomous or is the whole point of owning one being able to drive?