Driverless car company partners with Indy 500 winner

Dario Franchitti, winner of three Indianapolis 500 races, including this one in 2012, is helping Coast Autonomous understand how cars respond to drivers. (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway)

Coast Autonomous, a Pasadena, California-based self-driving-vehicle technology company, has hired three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti as a consultant as it continues to develop its autonomous-vehicle system.

“Since Coast asked me to join the team, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about everything I do in a car that had previously been subconscious after years of professional driving,” Franchitti, 44, said in a statement.

“I watch the slightest movement of a driver’s head or the twitch of a front wheel, so I know when and how a vehicle is going to change direction before it actually does,” he said. “I am planning to teach these skills to the Coast engineers.”

“Simply sitting in a car with Dario at the wheel is like taking a master class in driving. The way he drives is completely different from how an average person drives,” said Adrian Sussmann, Coast’s managing director. “He is completely aware of everything around him and anticipates every movement and trajectory of surrounding vehicles and pedestrians. It seems completely obvious to us that, if you are developing self-driving software, you should understand how someone of Dario’s caliber drives.”

Coast sells a variety of vehicles equipped with its software to offer transportation-as-a-service solutions to cities, theme parks, campuses, airports and other low-speed environments.•