Think You Could Beat This Driverless Xiaomi Around the Ring? You Might Be Right

Xiaomi has just ticked another box on its Nürburgring scorecard, but this time the YU7 GT did it with no one in the driver’s seat. The fully autonomous SUV rolled around the Nordschleife’s 20.8 km Northern Loop in 10 minutes 29.483 seconds, becoming the first driverless car to complete a full timed lap of the old circuit.

The figure is more than three minutes adrift of the 7 minutes 22.76 seconds the same YU7 GT managed last month with a professional driver aboard, which also set a new SUV record. The onboard video shows a deliberately cautious robot: it brakes early, hugs the inside of corners, and keeps generous margins to the Armco.

Only on the exits does the 990 HP (1,003 PS / 738 kW) electric powertrain’s instant torque let the YU7 GT hustle down the straights. The Nordschleife’s final straight, Döttinger Höhe, is 2.1 km long and the autonomous system’s 131 mph (210 km/h) limiter is clearly visible; the car hits the governor and simply holds speed, costing valuable seconds.

Strip that restriction and the lap time would likely drop by at least two seconds. While impressive, the demo is more about proving the tech than chasing outright pace.

Xiaomi hasn’t revealed what sensor suite or AI stack guided the YU7 GT—it certainly wasn’t running the same Lidar stack it uses on Shanghai streets. Still, the run underscores how quickly autonomous driving is evolving, even if the robots aren’t ready to challenge human record holders just yet.