Car-race gamers set a world record
THE UBER concept has proven a popular and convenient way of hailing taxis around the world, as well as in South Africa’s major cities, but imagine arranging a cab from your smartphone and being shuttled to your destination in a driverless car.
That’s exactly what’s in the works under a new agreement signed by Uber and Volvo, who are now working together in research of autonomous vehicle technologies. The two companies have so far poured a total of $300-million (R4.05-billion) into the project, which plans to develop a new self-driving car in the near future. Few details on the due date or of the final product have been released, but the new vehicle will be based on the same platform which underpins the current XC90 SUV and S90 sedan. The new car will be built by Volvo, and GOOD luck trying to convince your kids that it’s unhealthy to stay up all night, eating junk food and playing video games, when Guinness World Records is now handing out awards for exactly that.
Last week at Europe’s biggest gaming expo, Gamescom, held in Cologne, Germany, five sugar-fuelled TV game experts were presented with a Guinness certificate for the “longest video marathon on a racing game”.
The five virtual racers, who ranged in age from 23 to 42, completed a marathon two-day session at the wheel of a Ford GT race car in the game Forza Motorsport 6. Cara Scott from the UK, Hélène Cressot from France, Johannes Knapp from Germany, Andrea Lorenzo Facchinetti from Italy, and Jesús Sicilia Sánchez, from Spain drove for 48 hours, 29 minutes and 21 seconds, and completed a combined 41 004 virtual kilometres and 3015 laps of the La Sarthe circuit - an exact replica of the track which hosts the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race where a real bought by Uber for planned fleets around the world.
The collaboration is not wasting any time, however, as real-world testing is expected to happen in the US within the next few weeks. For this pilot phase, a fleet of self-driving XC90s will be available for Ford GT scored a historic win in its class earlier this year.
The team survived on a total of 32 energy drinks, 146 bottles of water and 47 bottles of soft drinks, and ate more than 3 kilograms of sweets in the process. The virtual distance achieved in the marathon stint is roughly 100km more than the distance around the world. The previous record (yes, there was actual customers to use, for free, in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The vehicles will be fitted with the latest autonomous tech, and will drive by themselves, but will have engineers from Uber behind the wheel for safety reasons.
“Over one million people one) was 48 hours, 1 minute.
“They did an amazing job. Just like driving at the real Le Mans, this achievement required extreme levels of concentration, attention to detail, and most importantly endurance - because they had to keep going for twice as long as we did,” said Ford’s Racing driver Stefan Mücke, who competes in the World Endurance Cham- die in car accidents every year,” says Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick. “These are tragedies that self-driving technology can help solve, but we can’t do this alone.
That’s why our partnership with a great manufacturer like Volvo is so important. Volvo is a leader in vehicle development and best-in-class when it comes to safety. By combining the capabilities of Uber and Volvo we will get to the future faster, together.”
The Volvo partnership is only a small component of Uber’s giant plan to lead the way in autonomy. The American company recently bought Otto, a maker of self-driving tech for the trucking industry, for a reported $680-million (R9.18-billion). Uber also plans to spend $500-million (R6.75-billion) on maps and mapping software - a key element in the self-driving car mechanism. pionship in an actual GT race car.
Ford’s engineers worked together with Forza’s maker, Microsoft’s Turn 10 Studios, to make the virtual experience as realistic as possible. The look of the Ford GT is based on the actual car right down to the last millimetre, handling attributes are exactly replicated, and the engine’s distinctive sound is also programmed into the game. Other aspects, such as the active rear wing, which can change its angle automatically to suit different conditions, is also accurate.
Out of more than 450 cars available in the game, the Ford GT (which also features on the game’s cover) is one of the top five most-raced, and has completed almost 71 million kilometres virtually. That’s a trip to the moon and back 93 times.
The partnership between Ford and Microsoft also sees one of the biggest on-line gaming contests in history, where Forza 6 players around the world will race in a championship running until September 4. The winner will receive a brand new Ford Focus RS. To enter visit www.forzamotorsport.net