Formula EThe future is officially here, as the organisers of the first all-electric race series have announced plans to ditch the drivers altogether and hold the first fully autonomous driving championships.
Last year, Formula E became the first racing series exclusively for electric cars and, now, the organisers have decided to go one better and completely get rid of those pesky humans.
The new series, called ‘Roborace’, will run alongside the Formula E series, with the driverless cars competing at speeds of up to 150mph.
Besides meaning that any crashes will be a lot less harrowing to watch, it will also give a great platform for techies who are currently developing new and improved solutions for independently powered electric cars.
BBCThis guy won’t be involved, unfortunately…
Races will take place during the 2016-2017 season, using the same city-based circuits as the Formula E series including London, Beijing and Mexico City. Ten teams will compete against each other for the title, all using the same cars, but different computing algorithms and AI technologies to control them.
Speaking to Sky News, Denis Sverdlov, founder of Roborace and the race partner Kinetik, said:
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. Just as the mission of the new Formula E sport was to promote and improve electric car technology, the mission of Roborace is to demonstrate the capabilities of driverless cars and improve them through sport.
To be honest, we’d still rather see the return of Robot Wars and the utter joyous carnage which it brought to our screens, but robot racing is definitely a pretty awesome alternative!
