Edinburgh University Formula Student- EUFS 2026

Overview

This year marked a major milestone in Edinburgh University Formula Student’s development of an Autonomous Driving System (ADS) car. Building on the team’s previous work in electric vehicle development, EUFS successfully integrated autonomous perception, localisation, steering, braking and vehicle control systems into a competition-ready platform. At Formula Student UK 2026, the ADS car passed all standard EV scrutineering before becoming the first ADS-capable vehicle in FSUK history to pass the dedicated ADS scrutineering requirements. This validated the complete vehicle and autonomous system, from design and manufacturing through to safety validation and on-track testing, and enabled the car to be approved for dynamic competition.

Key Achievements and Milestones

• 1st place – Ansys FS-AI Autonomous Design Award.
• 1st place – FS-AI Simulation Development Award.
• 2nd place – FS-AI Overall Static Events (ADS).
• 4th place – FS-AI Overall Static Events (DDT).

In the final published FS-AI results, our ADS car, number 149, scored 412.6 points and finished 9th overall in the combined FS-AI standings. Our DDT entry, car 127, also finished 7th with 453.4 points.

• Passed all standard EV scrutineering, including the tilt and brake tests.
• Successfully passed ADS static scrutineering, and is allowed to be on track for dynamic events.
• First Scottish and British team to have developed a dynamic-event-approved ADS car.

These results demonstrated that the team’s autonomous expertise extends beyond the physical vehicle, encompassing simulation, software development and the integration of autonomous systems into a complete electric platform.

The Team

This year, EUFS has grown to over 160 members, bringing together students from a wide range of academic backgrounds, representing all three Colleges and 12 different Schools across the University. This diversity is central to the team, allowing students with different skills, perspectives and experiences to contribute to a shared engineering challenge.

The team is organised around members’ strengths and talents across three broad areas: technical, operational and administrative. We have also consolidated our vertical communication structure, establishing clearer channels for information, reporting and decision-making while improving the documentation of findings and applications throughout the team. At the same time, we have strengthened communication across sub-teams through proactive knowledge-sharing. Weekly presentations give members the opportunity to introduce their work, explain how their sub-team contributes to the wider project, and share knowledge across the organisation. This has helped create a more connected, collaborative and transparent team culture.

Preparing for FSUK

Prior to the FSUK competition, our team faced a difficult challenge. To implement our ADS Emergency Braking System, all-new brake disc and brake caliper assemblies had to be manufactured. Due to the additional rolling resistance added by the new assemblies, the suspension assemblies of car were now enduring more force than originally anticipated for an FS car. During one test run, our rear suspension bearing-rod-end snapped, and being just days before the competition and losing critical testing time every second, we had to find a replacement fast. Our go-to replacement was a rod-end from RS components, and thanks to the RS Build Fund, our team was able to continue with on-track running a few days later.

FSUK 2026

At the FSUK competition in July 2026, our team achieved some of the biggest technical milestones in our history. After making significant progress through EV scrutineering in 2025, but not being able to complete the electrical vehicle inspection, this year we were able to pass EV scrutineering for the first time. From there, our car continued through the remaining Formula Student and ADS inspections, eventually becoming the first team at Formula Student UK to complete all stages of scrutineering with our own ADS vehicle. This was the result of several years of development of our electric powertrain, accumulator, autonomous systems and safety systems, all finally coming together on the same functioning car.

Scrutineering

Completing scrutineering with an ADS car is particularly difficult, as the vehicle has to meet the requirements of both an electric Formula Student car and an autonomous vehicle. Alongside the normal mechanical and electrical inspections, the car must also pass dedicated autonomous system inspections and demonstrate the safety systems required to control the car without a driver. One of the most important of these systems is the Emergency Braking System, which has to be capable of bringing the vehicle to a stop safely if the autonomous system fails or the remote emergency stop is activated.

Passing the earlier stages of scrutineering also allowed us to progress to the tilt and brake tests, finally getting the car out of the scrutineering garages and into the later stages of vehicle testing at Silverstone. For a car which had spent several years progressing through individual sections of scrutineering, reaching these tests represented a major step towards having our own autonomous electric car capable of entering dynamic events.

The Final Challenge

Unfortunately, getting through scrutineering did not mean that all of our problems were over. Before we could complete the autonomous running we had planned, a brake line failure stopped the car from continuing. After the amount of work required simply to get an ADS vehicle through every stage of inspection, losing running time to a mechanical failure was frustrating, but it also demonstrated how far the project had progressed. Instead of being stopped by electrical or autonomous scrutineering, we had reached the point where the car was being prepared for genuine autonomous running at competition.

Looking Forward

Although we were not able to complete the autonomous dynamic events, FSUK 2026 marked a major change for the team. EUFS had already achieved eight consecutive FS-AI victories between 2018 and 2025 using the DDT platform, but our long-term goal has been to transfer that software and autonomous experience onto a complete electric vehicle designed and built by the team ourselves. Passing EV, Formula Student and ADS scrutineering with SISU26D brought us closer to that goal than ever before, and provided a fully scrutineered platform that future teams can continue developing towards completing the autonomous dynamic events at FSUK.