While the major names in the market battle bureaucracy and the average human driver to put autonomous cars on the streets, there are already advanced plans to make them compete on a professional circuit. According to the information available, the so-called Formula E, whose season is in full development, will give rise to Roborace, a category composed entirely by autonomous cars.
Let's be honest: it is inevitable. One day, the best high-performance drivers will have to face machines capable of processing complex algorithms in thousandths of a second, to establish whether races are the exclusive domain of humans or not. Yamaha already presented one of the first challenges with its Motobot, but now the idea is to move from two wheels to four. Motorsport fans surely know the young Formula E, which in its second season features surnames of very high caliber, including Prost, Senna, Piquet and Villeneuve. The next two races will take place in Uruguay and Argentina, and then close its visit to the American continent in Mexico and the United States. However, Formula E plans to offer much more than electric cars and famous surnames. What is coming? A championship of autonomous cars.
What We Know About Roborace
The official FIA presentation is not particularly rich in detail, but we do know the category will be called Roborace, and its races will serve as a warm-up for each Formula E event during the 2016-2017 season. Roborace races will not feature any special modifications; they will share the same circuits planned for Formula E competitions, and naturally, the same weather conditions. A total of ten teams will participate, each with two autonomous cars, all with identical technical parameters. In other words, the only way for the cars to gain an advantage is through smart, efficient algorithms, demonstrating just how good their developers' code is.
On average, a Roborace race will last one hour, and according to the FIA, top speeds will exceed 300 kilometers per hour, so we won't be watching snails. In addition to adding an extra twist to the entertainment factor, Roborace has the potential to act as a sort of super-laboratory that will allow the evaluation of new algorithms and new processing techniques. Few things are as demanding as a professional race. So far, autonomous cars have proven they can drive on a normal street. We'll see how they handle the track...
Read the official announcement:
