Road & Track Journalist Joe Kucinski features Toyota Research Institute and Stanford Engineering's world-first fully autonomous tandem drive sequence in this article.

"The two teams used advanced artificial intelligence technology to automate a pair of Toyota Supra drift cars, enabling them to slide and dance in perfect harmony," Kucinski writes. "And the two groups didn't just make self-driving drift cars because it looks cool; this technology, in fact, may one day be used to make driving safer for everyone."

If an everyday vehicle could intervene in slippery conditions like ice or snow, Kucinski explains, and control a car as if a Formula Drift driver was behind the wheel, the safety benefits would be obvious, he wrote.

Someday, Kucinski says, "we may see a version of this AI drift technology as the next big safety innovation."