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Formula E to Stage Driverless, AI "Roboraces"

posted by takyon on Thursday December 03 2015, @03:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the we-want-more-crashes dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

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?

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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 03 2015, @03:19PM

    by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Thursday December 03 2015, @03:19PM (#271373) Homepage
    How is being 17th "clearly a level above the rest", it seems more like "below 16 of the other 19 drivers" to me?

    But I agree that competition is good for helping drive the tech forward. I just think that perhaps they should have rejigged capacities, power, or race length to ensure that you don't need to stop your car and get a new one half way through the race.
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  • (Score: 1) by TwentyCharsIsNotEnou on Saturday December 05 2015, @08:34PM

    by TwentyCharsIsNotEnou (3007) on Saturday December 05 2015, @08:34PM (#272264)

    How is being 17th "clearly a level above the rest", it seems more like "below 16 of the other 19 drivers" to me?

    Damn good point, and yeah, that shows directly that technology is the biggest factor. Although McLaren is a bit of an outlier right now.

    I really still believe that the driver is very important though. If you look back to the years Vettel won in a clearly vastly superior Red Bull, Alonso came extremely close to winning two championships. The general consensus is that it was Alonso's skill and determination that made that possible. I don't think many of the 16 drivers ahead of him now would have come close. I acknowledge that things have gotten even more technical since then though.