• An autonomous-vehicle race is coming to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2021 in a development not seemingly related to Roger Penske's purchase of the speedway, announced yesterday.
• The race will feature universities' research software installed in Indy Lights race cars. The grand prize is $1 million.
• No, this does not mean self-driving cars are going to enter the Indy 500—yet.

Over the course of two days, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has seen massive amounts of change. Yesterday it was announced that Roger Penske and Penske Corp. would be taking ownership of the track, and today we learned from an announcement at SEMA that come 2021, the legendary speedway will host an autonomous-car race.

Dubbed the Indy Autonomous Challenge, the race will be a culmination of five rounds of competition among universities to create the best autonomous software; all of the competitors will use Indy Lights Dallara IL-15 race cars. The hardware on the supplied vehicles will be outfitted before the teams get the cars, including the sensors and computers, and the competition website says it's "unlikely" that teams will be permitted to tinker with those components. Universities that make it past the first four rounds will then go head to head on the racetrack to prove which vehicle's technology is superior—and to win $1 million.

How do you win? As with most races, by crossing the finish line first, and in this case, it has to be in 25 minutes or less to cover 20 laps, which means the cars will need to average at least 120 mph for the duration of the race.

At the time the press release was sent out, five universities had registered for the competition: Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, University of Florida, University of Illinois, and the University of Virginia. The competition is led by a nonprofit group called Energy Systems Network.

Mark your calendar for Oct. 23, 2021, for what will be the first time "Vehicles, start your own engines" is uttered at IMS.