05/28/2026
Three years ago, EPITECH - European Institute of Technology had no robocar program. This week, their students took 1st and 2nd place at the UTAC SAFER Challenge, Europe's premier autonomous mobility competition.
We've had a front-row seat on this journey.
It started in 2022 with a single intern, who spent two weeks in our San Francisco office, and a half-built inference engine. That intern went back to France with a nearly functional system, and Epitech built an entire program around it. Today, 16 campuses compete annually. The best go to Linas-Montlhéry just outside of Paris.
This year, Epitech Montpellier took first. Epitech Nancy took second.
Precision autonomy doesn't happen without people willing to do the hard, unglamorous work of getting the stack right. That's exactly what these students did.
Congratulations to the teams, to Colin Cleary and everyone at Epitech, to Clara Poillion and everyone at UTAC for building a competition worth winning, and to Nizar Ouarti at Sorbonne University.
The next generation of autonomy engineers are already building.