Roborace will take drivers out of motorsports next year by bringing autonomous electric vehicles to the track as a support series for the FIA Formula E Championship's 2016-2017 season. The driverless racecars will attempt to push the development of the cutting-edge tech through competition, and spectators will be able to check them out in cities around the world.
All of these electric racecars will be mechanically identical, but the squads will compete with their own algorithms and artificial intelligence. The one-hour races will run before the main event from Formula E, and the organizers will try to gather 10 teams to field two driverless vehicles each for the inaugural season. One of these crews will be a crowd-sourced effort from a community of experts.
"Anyone who is at the edge of this transformation now has a platform to show the advantages of their driverless solutions and this shall push the development of the technology," series founder Denis Sverdlov said in the announcement.
The organizers promise more details about the technology in these racers early next year, but the series could be fascinating to watch because major automakers have already shown autonomous vehicles can perform on the track. For example, Audi claimed that its autonomous TTS beat an amateur racer around Thunderhill, and BMW's Track Trainer lapped Laguna Seca without driver intervention. Yamaha has even started on similar tech for motorcycles.
All of these electric racecars will be mechanically identical, but the squads will compete with their own algorithms and artificial intelligence. The one-hour races will run before the main event from Formula E, and the organizers will try to gather 10 teams to field two driverless vehicles each for the inaugural season. One of these crews will be a crowd-sourced effort from a community of experts.
"Anyone who is at the edge of this transformation now has a platform to show the advantages of their driverless solutions and this shall push the development of the technology," series founder Denis Sverdlov said in the announcement.
The organizers promise more details about the technology in these racers early next year, but the series could be fascinating to watch because major automakers have already shown autonomous vehicles can perform on the track. For example, Audi claimed that its autonomous TTS beat an amateur racer around Thunderhill, and BMW's Track Trainer lapped Laguna Seca without driver intervention. Yamaha has even started on similar tech for motorcycles.
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