mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Autonomous Overtaking in Gran Turismo Sport Using Curriculum Reinforcement Learning

arXiv 2103.14666 ↗First posted 26 Mar 2021cs.RO cs.AIcited by 41

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Abstract (arXiv)

Professional race-car drivers can execute extreme overtaking maneuvers. However, existing algorithms for autonomous overtaking either rely on simplified assumptions about the vehicle dynamics or try to solve expensive trajectory-optimization problems online. When the vehicle approaches its physical limits, existing model-based controllers struggle to handle highly nonlinear dynamics, and cannot leverage the large volume of data generated by simulation or real-world driving. To circumvent these limitations, we propose a new learning-based method to tackle the autonomous overtaking problem. We evaluate our approach in the popular car racing game Gran Turismo Sport, which is known for its detailed modeling of various cars and tracks. By leveraging curriculum learning, our approach leads to faster convergence as well as increased performance compared to vanilla reinforcement learning. As a result, the trained controller outperforms the built-in model-based game AI and achieves comparable overtaking performance with an experienced human driver.

Key facts. Cited by 41 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 9 of its 26 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 26 Mar 2021.

Builds on

9 of 26 references.

References · 9

  1. 2018Addressing Function Approximation Error in Actor-Critic Methodscited by 2,302
  2. 2016Generative Adversarial Imitation Learningcited by 1,576
  3. 2018Off-Policy Deep Reinforcement Learning without Explorationcited by 1,227
  4. 2018Learning Latent Dynamics for Planning from Pixelscited by 1,221
  5. 2020Learning Quadrupedal Locomotion over Challenging Terraincited by 494
  6. 2016A Survey of Motion Planning and Control Techniques for Self-driving Urban Vehiclescited by 251
  7. 2020Super-Human Performance in Gran Turismo Sport Using Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 60
  8. 2018End-to-End Race Driving with Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 38
  9. 2021Deep Latent Competition: Learning to Race Using Visual Control Policies in Latent Spacecited by 20

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2021: 4; 2022: 5; 2023: 9; 2024: 9; 2025: 12; 2026: 2.

41 papers.

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  1. 2022Autonomous Vehicles on the Edge: A Survey on Autonomous Vehicle Racingcited by 56
  2. 2023How Simulation Helps Autonomous Driving:A Survey of Sim2real, Digital Twins, and Parallel Intelligencecited by 55
  3. 2025CaRL: Learning Scalable Planning Policies with Simple Rewardscited by 34
  4. 2021Learning Interactive Driving Policies via Data-driven Simulationcited by 17
  5. 2021Policy Search for Model Predictive Control with Application to Agile Drone Flightcited by 17
  6. 2022State Dropout-Based Curriculum Reinforcement Learning for Self-Driving at Unsignalized Intersectionscited by 15
  7. 2023Contrastive Learning for Enhancing Robust Scene Transfer in Vision-based Agile Flightcited by 11
  8. 2022Motion Planning and Control for Multi Vehicle Autonomous Racing at High Speedscited by 8
  9. 2024Reward-Driven Automated Curriculum Learning for Interaction-Aware Self-Driving at Unsignalized Intersectionscited by 8
  10. 2024Autonomous Driving at Unsignalized Intersections: A Review of Decision-Making Challenges and Reinforcement Learning-Based Solutionscited by 7
  11. 2022TC-Driver: Trajectory Conditioned Driving for Robust Autonomous Racing -- A Reinforcement Learning Approachcited by 6
  12. 2024Knowledge Transfer from Simple to Complex: A Safe and Efficient Reinforcement Learning Framework for Autonomous Driving Decision-Makingcited by 5
29 more
  1. 2022Event Tables for Efficient Experience Replaycited by 4
  2. 2025Bilevel Multi-Armed Bandit-Based Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Interaction-Aware Self-Driving at Unsignalized Intersectionscited by 4
  3. 2025A Champion-level Vision-based Reinforcement Learning Agent for Competitive Racing in Gran Turismo 7cited by 4
  4. 2021Expert Human-Level Driving in Gran Turismo Sport Using Deep Reinforcement Learning with Image-based Representationcited by 3
  5. 2024BeTAIL: Behavior Transformer Adversarial Imitation Learning from Human Racing Gameplaycited by 3
  6. 2024Tactical Decision Making for Autonomous Trucks by Deep Reinforcement Learning with Total Cost of Operation Based Rewardcited by 3
  7. 2023Learning the References of Online Model Predictive Control for Urban Self-Drivingcited by 2
  8. 2023Improving Environment Robustness of Deep Reinforcement Learning Approaches for Autonomous Racing Using Bayesian Optimization-based Curriculum Learningcited by 2
  9. 2024AARK: An Open Toolkit for Autonomous Racing Researchcited by 2
  10. 2025RLPP: A Residual Method for Zero-Shot Real-World Autonomous Racing on Scaled Platformscited by 2
  11. 2025A Survey of Reinforcement Learning-Based Motion Planning for Autonomous Driving: Lessons Learned from a Driving Task Perspectivecited by 2
  12. 2025Automated Reward Design for Gran Turismocited by 2
  13. 2021Autonomous Racing using a Hybrid Imitation-Reinforcement Learning Architecturecited by 1
  14. 2023Perception Imitation: Towards Synthesis-free Simulator for Autonomous Vehiclescited by 1
  15. 2023Sense, Imagine, Act: Multimodal Perception Improves Model-Based Reinforcement Learning for Head-to-Head Autonomous Racingcited by 1
  16. 2023Composing Efficient, Robust Tests for Policy Selectioncited by 1
  17. 2023Partial End-to-end Reinforcement Learning for Robustness Against Modelling Error in Autonomous Racingcited by 1
  18. 2024Mixed-Reality Digital Twins: Leveraging the Physical and Virtual Worlds for Hybrid Sim2Real Transition of Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Policiescited by 1
  19. 2024Let Hybrid A* Path Planner Obey Traffic Rules: A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Planning Frameworkcited by 1
  20. 2023Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Cooperative and Competitive Autonomous Vehicles using AutoDRIVE Ecosystemcited by 0
  21. 2024Deep Reinforcement Learning for Local Path Following of an Autonomous Formula SAE Vehiclecited by 0
  22. 2025Fair Play in the Fast Lane: Integrating Sportsmanship into Autonomous Racing Systemscited by 0
  23. 2025IntrinsicReal: Adapting IntrinsicAnything from Synthetic to Real Objectscited by 0
  24. 2025Orchestrate, Generate, Reflect: A VLM-Based Multi-Agent Collaboration Framework for Automated Driving Policy Learningcited by 0
  25. 2025Spatial Envelope MPC: High Performance Driving without a Referencecited by 0
  26. 2025Learning to Sample: Reinforcement Learning-Guided Sampling for Autonomous Vehicle Motion Planningcited by 0
  27. 2025Accelerating Real-World Overtaking in F1TENTH Racing Employing Reinforcement Learning Methodscited by 0
  28. 2026Self-Paced Curriculum Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Superbike Racing in Simulationcited by 0
  29. 2026From Attacks to Curricula: Learnability-Guided Adversarial Training for Safe Autonomous Drivingcited by 0