In case you didn’t think Formula E racing was enough of an indication as to where the vehicle industry is going, then get this; during Formula E’s 2016-2017 season, a support series will be launched with completely autonomous racing cars. The plan is for a 10-team series of driverless cars to compete in one-hour races.
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The series is being put together by Formula E and Kinetik and will be dubbed “ROBORACE”.
With companies like Audi and BMW demonstrating that it’s possible for autonomous cars to have a turn of speed, it was only time before someone envisioned a race series for self-driving vehicles. The races will take place on the same city street circuits as the existing manned Formula E racing.
This new championship called “Roborace” will provide a competitive platform for the autonomous driving solutions that are now being developed by many industrial automotive and technology players as well as top tech universities.
The founder of Kinetik and ROBORACE, Denis Sverdlov, said it is their passionate belief that vehicles all over the world will be assisted by AI and powered by electricity in the future, which will improve the environment and road safety. All the teams will have the same cars.
Further details about these driverless racecars will be announced early next year.
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“Roborace is an open challenge to the most innovative scientific and technology-focused companies in the world”, Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag said in a statement. All the teams will have the same cars but will be competing using real-time computing algorithms and Artificial Intelligence technologies.
