Perseverance Uses AI To Plan Drives

NASA’s Perseverance rover completed the first Mars drives planned autonomously by generative AI on Dec. 8 and Dec. 10, 2025, executed by JPL in collaboration with Anthropic using Claude models. The vision-language models analyzed HiRISE imagery and digital elevation maps to generate waypoints, and JPL’s digital twin verified over 500,000 telemetry variables before commands were sent. Perseverance drove 689 feet and 807 feet on those sols, demonstrating potential for kilometer-scale autonomous planning and reduced operator workload.