Would you watch C3PO racing versus R2D2?
WE ALL know that most big car companies are working feverishly on driverless technologies, and some, such as Mercedes-Benz, are already able to send autonomous vehicles out into real world traffic for relatively short unmanned journeys.
But now a proposed new racing series is set to run a complete championship without a single driver on the grid, and it could happen as early as next year. The new formula, called Roborace, will see a grid of completely driverless cars race around street circuits as curtain-raising events prior to each round of next season’s all-electric FIA Formula E Championship.
Formula E, currently in its second season, was conceived as an environmentally friendly form of racing with a focus on demonstrating battery power technologies. Roboracing will take the idea one step further, with a field of ten teams, each with two cars, competing head to head without any drivers on board.
All teams will have identical cars but will compete using realtime computing algorithms and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.
“We passionately believe that, in the future, all of the world’s vehicles will be assisted by AI and powered by electricity, thus improving the environment and road safety,” says series founder Denis Sverlov. “Roborace is a celebration of revolutionary technology and innovation that humanity has achieved in that area so far. It’s a global platform to show that robotic technologies and AI can co-exist with us.”
The Roborace series is scheduled to debut in Formula E’s 2016-17 season, starting next October.