In the World's Newest Race Series, the Cars Drive Themselves
Cheering for your favorite race car driver is about to take on a whole new meaning.
Formula E in partnership with Kinetic has announced the very first autonomous racing league called ROBORACE, which is set to commence during the 2016/2017 season.
These self-driving race cars will take to the track right before the Formula E Championship cars and will compete for one hour. The league will be made up of 10 teams with two cars each and every car will be the same.
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The difference will be made by the teams behind the scenes using real-time computing algorithms and AI technology. “ROBORACE is a celebration of revolutionary technology and innovation that humanity has achieved in that area so far,” said Denis Sverdlov, Founder of Kinetik and ROBORACE. “It’s a global platform to show that robotic technologies and AI can co-exist with us in real life.”
To try and showcase independent talent, one of the teams will be an open community that uses crowd sourcing to connect software and technology experts from around the world.
Even the support vehicles, including the driver’s parade trucks and tow trucks will be electric. More details and announcements about the teams and technologies will be made early next year.
Stephen covers all of the day-to-day events of the industry as the News Editor at AutoGuide, along with being the AG truck expert. His truck knowledge comes from working long days on the woodlot with pickups and driving straight trucks professionally. When not at his desk, Steve can be found playing his bass or riding his snowmobile or Sea-Doo. Find Stephen on <A title="@Selmer07 on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/selmer07">Twitter</A> and <A title="Stephen on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/117833131531784822251?rel=author">Google+</A>
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And we thought the decline of manual shifting cars was bad. Automated racing - slot cars on steriods?