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Real-time computing algorithms will replace humans in an innovative series of driverless races to be staged alongside the regular Formula E season, promotors said on Wednesday.
The Formula E championship features 10 teams of two drivers on city-centre circuits. Brazilian Nelson Piquet Junior won the inaugural 2014/2015 world championship.
It is seen as a cleaner and greener alternative to Formula One and the news of the Formula E initiative coincides with the Paris-hosted COP21 global climate talks.
Now Formula E and Kinetik, a technology company specialising in electric vehicles and trains, will also stage races between 10 teams of two driverless cars on the same circuits as a warm-up show to the main event.
This new championship called 'ROBORACE' will start for the 2016-2017 season. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) guided one-hour races will run over the full championship.
Won't taking humans out of the driver's seat take all the drama and excitement out of the sport?
(Score: 1, Troll) by c0lo on Thursday December 03 2015, @03:15AM
Because racing is exactly what the public needs from a driverless car!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 03 2015, @03:46AM
It sounds about as exciting as watching a CGI car race.
(Score: 1) by Hardness on Thursday December 03 2015, @03:00PM
Gran Turismo 4's B-Spec mode was pretty fun...!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Snow on Thursday December 03 2015, @04:08AM
They /do/ need this.
They really need a rally league where they race on snowy and gravel roads. We need to have software that can handle non-ideal conditions so that when you hit an icy patch on your way to work, you don't end up in a wreck.
Also, how can you pick up chicks in your car if your car can't even do an e-brake turn?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 03 2015, @05:03AM
I would totally watch a robot rally race. No matter what it would be awesome to watch. Either the cars would go out in a chaotic mess on various parts of the course or it would be a masterful illustration of what cars could do at pace.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 03 2015, @01:56PM
It would be cool if someone (like VW) dropped some road rage code into the AI programming.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Thursday December 03 2015, @06:56AM
They really need a rally league where they race on snowy and gravel roads. We need to have software that can handle non-ideal conditions so that when you hit an icy patch on your way to work, you don't end up in a wreck.
Damn that is a really good point. It is pure race spirit to have the teams compete and automotive racing has driven technology since it started.
Also, how can you pick up chicks in your car if your car can't even do an e-brake turn?
Ugh did you get one that has a foot pedal? Those suck for doing e-brake turns. Pro-tip: put a zip tie on the ratchet for the pedal then you can drop it at the end of your turn and get your hands on the wheel quicker.
Even more pro-tip: that isn't an emergency brake, its a parking brake.
Go big or go home: Parking brake turns are a work around for not having a proper rear wheel drive vehicle. If you are trying to impress chicks the gas pedal works a lot better.
Or did you need the car to do it for you?
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Thursday December 03 2015, @07:09AM
Arg apologies for the inaccurate trolling. That's what I get for editing the thing between bong hits. Feet go on pedals, hands go on levers.
You really do impress chicks with a rear wheel drive car and gas pedal by going into oversteer though.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 03 2015, @08:52AM
And you reckon racing is the best/cheapest option to actually develop those algos?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 03 2015, @10:27AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday December 03 2015, @04:13PM
Not the cheapest, but maybe the best.
(Score: 1) by Darth Turbogeek on Thursday December 03 2015, @11:15PM
Take it from an honest to God rally driver - you will never pick up chicks by calling it a e-brake. It's HANDbrake or GTFO.
And the really hot chicks only go down for someone that doesn't need a handbrake to pull off the perfect hairpin - you set up a Scandinavian flick from 100 meters out and she'll be on your gearstick so fast you co-driver wont be able to say "100 Hump over crest"
Oh and just another suggestion - the really hot chicks konw that only wankers call it rally racing. It's RALLYING like any good true Euro rally fan will tell you. Call it rally racing in Finland, you will get executed by moose.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2015, @12:13AM
There's a distinction between the term "rallying" and "rally racing"? I always thought they were synonyms.
(Score: 1) by Darth Turbogeek on Friday December 04 2015, @03:42AM
Rallying is the term used for the last 100 years almost everywhere around the world and can refer to short navigational rallies to Paris -Dakar raid style events and is in fact a time trial, not a race under FIA rules. The point is always to either score the lowest number of penalty point or achieve the lowest elapsed time or a combination of both.
Rally racing is Rallycross. You just need to get to the finish line before the other competitors you are racing - if you can do that by driving slowly then hey, you still win! It is not a time trial and hence not a rally, it is a race. And is looked down on as a pissweak distant cousin of real rallying unless there is Group B involved.
There is also a very big difference in the rule book, crews, cars, driving requirements etc.
so yep, rallying and rally racing are two VERY different things and calling rallying "rally racing" often will set you up for a swift punch to the face by a bunch of drunk rally fans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 03 2015, @05:41AM
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 03 2015, @08:49AM
Up to now, racing-as-R&D was about improving car performance, the driving-algorithm was provided by a human wetware.
In regards with electric vehicle (see the definition for Formula E [fiaformulae.com]), if you target the (EM) car performance, you'll let a driver do the driving
But if the target is improving the driverless algorithms, for sure racing is a poor choice for your R&D - you simply don't want you consumer-targeted driverless car to provide a "racing option"; Toyota paid through its nose [wikipedia.org] the "throttle under carpet" incident, just think of the manufacturer's liability if a car crashes while racing and kills its passengers.
At most, they may use racing as a marketing gimmick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 03 2015, @11:19AM
You are aware that the technology of the race cars is not built into regular cars unmodified? Why would you think it would happen with the driving software?
Racing would imply having the car under control in extreme conditions. A software that can have the car under control under extreme conditions certainly is also able to keep the car under control in less extreme conditions, and will be useful if the car indeed gets into extreme conditions for other reasons than being in a race.
There will be other parts of the software included only in racing cars (as well as parts only included in non-racing cars; it doesn't much sense to add routing software to racing cars, for example; the racing track is already predetermined and need not be calculated on the fly, or altered to avoid traffic jams).
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday December 04 2015, @12:08AM
Are you aware that safety critical software [wikipedia.org] (don't put humans in danger) is engineered differently from mission critical software [wikipedia.org] (maximize system stability/performance to win the race)?
Looking to the pervasiveness of sudden unintended acceleration [wikipedia.org] (not only Toyota cars were affected), I really doubt the auto makers are prepared to discern the difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by Hardness on Thursday December 03 2015, @01:01PM
(You realize that racing is one of the ways they work out bugs in bleeding-edge technology, right?)