{"id":262250,"date":"2026-02-01T08:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T08:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/262250\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T08:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T08:55:07","slug":"nasas-perseverance-rover-completes-first-ai-planned-drive-on-mars-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/262250\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Perseverance Rover Completes First AI-Planned Drive on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Follow TNM’s WhatsApp<\/a> channel for news updates and story links.<\/p>\n

The six-wheeled Perseverance rover has completed the first drives on Mars that were planned by artificial intelligence (AI), NASA said. Conducted on December 8 and 10, 2025, the demonstration used generative AI to create waypoints for Perseverance. The complex decision-making task is typically performed manually by the mission\u2019s human rover planners at the US space agency\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis demonstration shows how far our capabilities have advanced and broadens how we will explore other worlds,\u201d said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.<\/p>\n

\u201cAutonomous technologies like this can help missions to operate more efficiently, respond to challenging terrain, and increase science return as distance from Earth grows. It\u2019s a strong example of teams applying new technology carefully and responsibly in real operations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The rover, about the size of a car and carrying seven scientific instruments, has been exploring Mars, studying its geology and atmosphere, as well as collecting samples since 2021.<\/p>\n

During the demonstration, the team leveraged a type of generative AI called vision-language models to analyse existing data from the surface mission dataset.<\/p>\n

The AI used the same imagery and data that human planners rely on to generate waypoints — fixed locations where the rover takes up a new set of instructions — so that Perseverance could safely navigate the challenging Martian terrain.<\/p>\n

The initiative was led out of JPL\u2019s Rover Operations Center (ROC) in collaboration with Anthropic, using the company\u2019s Claude AI models.<\/p>\n

The team for the six-wheeled scientist used a vision-capable AI to create a safe route over the Red Planet\u2019s surface without the input of human route planners.<\/p>\n

NASA noted that on December 8, with generative AI waypoints in its memory, Perseverance drove 689 feet (210 metres). Two days later, it drove 807 feet (246 metres).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow TNM’s WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links. The six-wheeled Perseverance rover has completed the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[150220,150225,150222,150221,150223,25522,111,139,69,150224,147],"class_list":["post-262250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ai-planned-drive-mars","tag-autonomous-rover-technology","tag-generative-ai-space-exploration","tag-mars-rover-ai","tag-nasa-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-nasa-perseverance-rover","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-perseverance-mars-mission","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}