The FIA Formula E Championship has announced a new driverless car racing series called ROBORACE. The series will feature autonomous electric cars in support races before the main Formula E race at each grand prix.
Created in a partnership between Formula E and Kinetik, ROBORACE has been designed to be a competitive platform for any willing autonomous vehicle makers. The series is meant to become the proving ground for autonomous vehicles. In much the same way Formula 1 has been to road cars, and F-E is to electric vehicles.
The first of such autonomous car racing set to take place in Formula E’s next season in 2016. Established auto makers, as well as various tech Universities and technology companies such as Google may be some of the 10 teams lining up on the grid.
Aforementioned Google, Tesla, and traditional auto-makers are already experimenting with autonomous vehicles. So it was only a matter of time before such a series was conceived.
The driverless electric car races will form part of the supporting acts before the main Formula E racing but will also have a championship in its own right.
As with other industries that have been disrupted by AI, the question is whether ROBORACE will become the future of car racing. Current trends show that the series would most likely co-exist with existing championships.
The competition may very well become an established brand in a similar vein to Formula E’s success, however. The F-E championship is now in its second season and has made big strides in gaining mainstream appeal and commercial support.
ROBORACE : Auto Racing’s Future?
Reflecting the Formula E Championship, each team will field two driverless electric cars in hour long races around the same circuits hosting F-E.
The vehicles in ROBORACE will all be the same which means teams will have to try and find an edge some other way. The press notification suggested there would be use of real-time computing algorithms and AI technology during races.
Denis Sverdlov, Founder of Kinetik and ROBORACE, said: “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. ROBORACE is a celebration of revolutionary technology and innovation that humanity has achieved in that area so far.”
He went on to say; “It’s a global platform to show that robotic technologies and AI can co-exist with us in real life. Thus, 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.”
On the face of it, ROBORACE seems like an exciting development for the future of auto racing, and indeed transportation in general. The series has thrown down the gauntlet to those involved in the making of autonomous cars to come and show off their work.
In the same press release, Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E, said: “We are very excited to be partnering with Kinetik on what is surely one of the most cutting-edge sporting events in history . . .
. . . ROBORACE is an open challenge to the most innovative scientific and technology-focused companies in the world. It is very exciting to create a platform for them to showcase what they are capable of and I believe there is great potential for us to unearth the next big idea through the unique crowd-sourced contest.”
The driverless car races have not been created to replace human controlled auto racing, but may very well end up doing so. Technologies developed for the racing cars will also be used to formulate components of consumer autonomous vehicles that we will use on the roads in the future.
Whether i’s the future of car racing, or just a part of it, we cant wait until lights out at the first ROBORACE!
