Racing autonomous cars through the desert is one thing. Racing a driver-less car up the steep, winding paths of the Rocky Mountains at race speeds is quite another, but that’s the goal a team of Stanford graduate students has set for itself, outfitting an Audi TTS named “Shelly” to navigate the Pikes Peak race course wit no one behind the wheel.

Named for French driver Michele Mouton, the first female rally driver to win the Pikes Peak rally in 1985, Shelly’s trunk is loaded with computer gadgetry and a $100,000 GPS system that will help direct the piloting software through the course’s 12.4-mile, 156-turn ascent to more than 14,000 feet above sea level. With the exception of a couple of exterior fixtures on the roof, Shelley looks and acts like a normal Audi TTS, running on gasoline and handling via standard braking and steering systems. But unlike the average roadster, a software package designed by Stanford’s Dynamic Design Lab will execute the actual driving maneuvers, which are designed to closely mimic those of an actual racecar driver.

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