Perseverance rover completes first fully autonomous AI-guided drives on Mars
text_fields
NASA’s Perseverance rover has successfully completed its first fully autonomous drives on Mars using routes generated entirely by artificial intelligence, marking a significant milestone in robotic space exploration.
The six-wheeled rover, which landed in Mars’ Jezero Crater in 2021 to search for signs of ancient life and collect rock samples, carried out the AI-planned drives in December 2025. During the experiment, Perseverance navigated the Martian surface without human-designed routes, relying instead on AI-generated paths.
According to NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, engineers used a vision-capable generative AI model to plan the rover’s drives on December 8 and December 10. The system analysed high-resolution orbital images and terrain data to identify hazards such as rocks, sand ripples, and steep slopes. Based on this analysis, the AI generated safe waypoints for the rover to follow.
Perseverance successfully executed both routes, covering about 210 metres in each drive. Before sending the commands to Mars, engineers tested the AI-generated instructions in a digital twin of the rover, verifying more than 500,000 variables to ensure safety.
NASA said the achievement is important because Mars is about 225 million kilometres away, making real-time control impossible. Administrator Jared Isaacman noted that AI-based planning could improve mission efficiency and increase scientific returns. JPL engineers added that such technology could eventually allow rovers to travel kilometre-scale distances with minimal human intervention, supporting future robotic and human missions to the Moon and Mars.