As our cars gain new technologies and assist our driving, its long been on mind, that the differentiation between auto manufacturers of the future will be how good their software algorithms are. Optimising the route a driverless vehicle should take on a freeway drive is one thing, but what about a racing war for the fastest lap around a track, all without a driver ?
It’s happening!
Formula E has announced a partnership with Kinetik with the intention to launch a global race series for driverless electric cars. This new championship called ‘Roborace’ will provide a competitive platform for the autonomous driving solutions that are now being developed automotive and technology businesses, with some help from leading universities.
Appropriately the showcase for this RoboRace will be along side the all-electric Formula E races in 2016-2017.
Ten teams, each with two driverless cars, will compete in one-hour races over the full championship season. All the teams will have the same cars however will compete using real-time computing algorithms and AI technologies
Founder of Kinetik and Roborace, Denis Sverdlov, says this competition will ultimately assist in road safety. He goes on to say that Roborace is a celebration of revolutionary technology and innovation that humanity has achieved in that area so far.
If Elon Musk was smart, he’d give his Tesla and SpaceX engineers some 20% time and enter RoboRace (and probably win). Programming vehicles to navigate the wild west of open streets is an insanely difficult thing to cater for ever variation. With the restriction of specific race tracks, it’ll be seriously interesting to watch the teams battle it out, not at a hardware level, but with software.
More information at Electic AutoSport.
