A new racing formula that would eliminate the driver will turn racing on its robotic head. No longer will having the best driver give you the edge, the race will be won by those who have the best software – in other words a battle behind a keyboard some many kilometres away from the circuit.
Roborace is a concept that’s not that far fetched considering we’ve sat behind the wheel of a Honda Accord that did a full lap of a circuit without any driver intervention. Now Formula E in conjunction with Kinetic Friday want to showcase this in a more competitive environment where several of these cars will jostle for position on the same piece of tarmac.
With a proposal that’s right up Silicon Valley’s street, Roborace is working towards a first demonstration in 2016 and is looking to attract universities, carmakers and tech companies to the grid. Roborace would naturally form part of the support package to Formula E and while rules are yet to be ratified by a committee that’s yet to be established, Roborace could have ten events one hour races in the calendar. Cars would be built to the same specification (no safety tests to factor into the design) and only the software would differ. Speeds in excess of 300km/h will be possible.
“In terms of technology we’re trying to make them better than humans. So it means we expect the cars will have high acceleration and high speeds,” Denis Sverdlov, from Kinetik, the company that will make all the cars, told WIRED. “Even if the first race isn’t going to be as high-speed as the current one can do, it is still going to be a huge achievement.”
