Xiaomi Turns Nürburgring Into AI Testing Ground as YU7 GT Completes First Official Autonomous Nordschleife Lap

The Xiaomi YU7 GT, which already held the Nürburgring circuit record in the SUV category, has just set a new record on the German track in autonomous mode. The time achieved isn’t earth-shattering, but it remains a record.

The YU7 GT has established what the brand calls “the first global lap record in autonomous mode at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.”

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To showcase the capabilities of its electric cars, Xiaomi has taken its lineup to Nürburgring. The results are convincing, achieving records such as the SU7 Ultra (7:04.957, later surpassed by the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with Manthey package) and the YU7 GT (7:22.755), the fastest SUV to date at Nürburgring.

That time, however, with no driver at the wheel, the car covered nearly 21 km and 73 corners of the track in 10 minutes and 29.483 seconds. A time that isn’t extraordinary, as mentioned. Yet the car managed to navigate the circuit relying entirely on its own algorithmic judgment, with no human intervention of any kind.

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To accomplish this, the YU7 GT used an autonomous driving system based on a battery of LiDAR sensors, 4D millimeter-wave radar, eleven cameras, and twelve ultrasonic sensors, managed by an NVIDIA Thor-U processor. Its two electric motors deliver 738 kW (1,003 hp) and propel the SUV from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.92 seconds.

The system is capable of handling accelerations, braking, trajectory changes, and adaptations to track conditions without any occupant touching the steering wheel or pedals.

The Nordschleife is one of the harshest environments for any driving algorithm, with elevation changes, consecutive bends, and sections with limited visibility forcing the system to make millisecond-scale decisions.

The autonomous lap of the YU7 was 3 minutes and 7 seconds slower than the best time achieved by the driver-equipped YU7 GT. With a driver and the Track Package installed, the SUV managed 7:22.755, the time officially recorded by Nürburgring on April 2, 2026 with Vincent Radermecker at the wheel.

Nevertheless, it remains the best lap ever recorded by a 100% autonomous car. The onboard video shows clean trajectories, but modest speeds. In fact, the average speed was 119 km/h.

In any case, questions still linger about that record. Was the route mapped in advance or did the car choose its lines? A SU7 also appears following the autonomous YU7, though its exact role isn’t clear. Moreover, conditions were optimal, with an empty circuit and no traffic. It would have been interesting to see how it would perform amid the sometimes chaotic traffic of the circuit.

Xiaomi thus promotes its autonomous driving system, the Xiaomi Auto World Model, unveiled in late May 2026. It is the equivalent of Tesla’s FSD where, in principle, the car predicts, understands, and interacts with its environment.

But this system remains limited and is legally considered a Level 2 autonomous driving system. Remember that adaptive cruise control is also Level 2. Level 3 autonomous driving remains rare, and Level 4, a vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, is still reserved for a few prototypes under strict conditions. In short, this is merely the beginning.

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