c|net: CES 2021: Autonomous racing is coming to Indianapolis with the Indy Autonomous Challenge:
We've seen a couple of attempts at getting an autonomous racing series off the ground in recent years from the likes of Roborace and others, but none have really found much traction. A new series called the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) hopes to change that.
The series was announced on Monday during the 2021 CES show and features racecar chassis designed by the experts at Dallara -- you may know it as the firm that does all the chassis for the Indy Car series others. Interestingly, this is being run as a spec race, where the cars are all identical mechanically and it's each team's software that gives it a competitive edge.
[T]he Indy Autonomous Challenge will pit 30 university teams against one another to remotely race full-size, and fully-powered, Indy cars for 20 laps. The first team to reach the finish line goes home with $1 million.
"If we can go 240 miles per hour without colliding, surely we can make highway traffic safer," said Mark Miles, president and chief executive of Penske Entertainment Corp., which owns the IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway — where the Indy Autonomous Challenge will take place.
[...] October's race was inspired by the DARPA autonomous challenge of 2005, which saw 196 teams competing to drive a car 140 miles without a person inside. Just five teams completed the race within the allotted time.
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:33PM (1 child)
A real test of artificial intelligence.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 12 2021, @10:05PM
Nah!
A REAL test of artificial intelligence is for the raceway to have several crosswalks for random pedestrians.
Or frogs. Call it inverse frogger.
Forget AI. Build a real racetrack with remote controlled real-life vehicles, and sell access to wealthy gamers.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:34PM (5 children)
Newsflash: highway driving is a fair bit more complicated than cars going round and round on an oval track, all in the same direction, all roughly at the same speed - however fast.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Tuesday January 12 2021, @09:33PM (3 children)
Absolutely agree. Not sure why people make statements like what you quoted. At 240 people are paying much greater attention than even the best average public drivers.
I've had very few traffic tickets, none in at least 15 years, but if I ever got stopped for driving too fast, I always wanted to tell a cop it's the only way I can keep my focus on driving. No, I wouldn't really do that, but it is true. A fairly major highway near me where speed limit is still 55, cars are pretty much going 80-90...
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday January 12 2021, @10:02PM
"But officer, the reason I was going so fast was because I don't want the bodies in the trunk to bleed all over the carpet."
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday January 13 2021, @01:19AM (1 child)
I don't feel like it's necessary for me to speed in order to stay engaged on /every/ road. But I can think of a few...
"A fairly major highway near me where speed limit is still 55, cars are pretty much going 80-90..."
That's horrible. I guess you're back East. At least that's where I've seen such things. Out West most interstates are typically 75-85, some higher. Highways still at 55 are ones where people have houses all along them through the countryside with no barriers, kids and pets and farm animals may wander out in the road, so I'm ok with the speed limits there, you really do have to pay a little more attention there. People fly past me obviously speeding occasionally, but it's not like back East where I would drive the speed limit and immediately become a slow-moving traffic hazard. The East has become just like much of Europe (and Australia) - speeding tickets (within a certain range) are part of the cost of operating the vehicle, and simply intended to raise revenue.
A fundamentally corrupt state of affairs, imhop.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday January 13 2021, @03:26AM
No, not necessary, but it helps. :) I used to drive 3 hours to and from college, many weekends. The drive got very boring. I used to think they should paint the dashed lines much shorter dashes so the repetition rate would be higher and less mesmerizing.
I'm not really a speeder, but I'm in the top few percent of driver quality. I worry about the other drivers, and keep close watch on them. That said, even in the 80-90 range, they're all behaving very well- not the crazy lane-changing, shifting around, etc. Quite steady.
Of course, if something goes wrong, it could be disaster. One day I was going probably 80 and had a right-front tire blow, and I mean BLOW out. It caused body damage, cracked the bumper cover, lost the entire outer tread. I'm proud to say I handled it well, but it makes you think what surely could happen at speed.
Yes, I'm "back east" as they say. My mom's grandparents homesteaded in the midwest, and mom's father went "back east" to go to school, etc., hence the phrase.
My area is much more suburban, so where there are houses, it's mostly 25-35. One area is grandfathered in at 45, but that will probably be lowered soon due to many new developments. But out in more rural areas are roads with houses posted at 55 and I always feel badly for those people, but I realize they're used to it.
We have a mix of driver speeds. There are many highways I won't get on. Not the speed, but the absurd stuff people do at speed, or weaving in and out of the slow traffic. You'll have the slow people in the left lane a lot. The ones that bug me the most are the slowest people in the middle of 3 lanes. It's too difficult to get from the far left to the far right. You have to slow way down to get into the middle lane, then risk an accident trying to speed up for the left or right lane.
The highway I'm referring to is not like western ones- long, straight, flat. It's 3-lanes each way, but has curves, hills, etc. But people are behaving, and cops rarely patrol it. We have tons of great doughnut and coffee shops. :) We citizens have a secret fund we pay into to keep the shops in business and give the cops discounts and free stuff. Just kidding, but it's not the worst idea I've ever come up with. :)
Joking aside, pretty much all of govt. is corrupted by money and a list of craziness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @09:57PM
int flag = 0;
while (!flag) {
turn_left();
check_for(flag);
}
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:36PM (9 children)
That sounds like it's gonna be boring as fuck to watch, and of course those are not typical driving conditions so I fail to see just how this tech will trickle down to the consumer. No pedestrians or debris to avoid? No intersections? No thanks. Those cars will probably be spaced like half a mile apart or they're gonna crash like motherfuckers. Either way, I'd be happy to read the post-mortem the day after.
Hell, knowing modern industry, they're probably just too goddamn cheap to pay drivers.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:40PM (4 children)
To be fair, NASCAR racing is mind-numbingly boring to watch even when there are actual drivers inside the cars. I don't know how Americans manage to get excited about a giant Scalextric track without slots, but they do, so I guess they're already primed to enjoy the same show without drivers.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:48PM (2 children)
Agreed totally, my buddies who enjoy NASCAR always say, "Well it's awesome live, with beer!" Well, no shit, everything's awesome live and with beer. Steaming your fucking carpet is awesome live and with beer, perhaps a little music.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @09:10PM
At least this one, when it gets "exciting" you won't have to feel guilty as it'll just kill a car rather than a person.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @09:20PM
That sounds awesome!! How do I subscribe to your carpet steaming channel?
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday January 12 2021, @09:28PM
I half agree. I watch NASCAR a little, here and there. It's not like normal driving, so if you try to empathize, you won't get it. It's about extreme situational awareness, including the dynamics of the track, tire pressures and adhesion / grip, car suspension adjustments, aerodynamics, all happening at cat-like reflex speeds.
It's a little like baseball- it can be lots of boredom with sudden extreme excitement. And no, I don't like the crashes, but the close-calls are exciting.
All that said, as I said, I only watch bits, and usually doing something else (like reading SN). You may not know but they added to the tracks- inside the main oval the cars divert into road-course with "S" turns, etc., so it became quite different recently. Not sure if all races will do that going forward.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @09:06PM
If the AIs are good, it will be boring.
But I'm guessing the student built AIs aren't that good...and it will be a high speed demolition derby.
Historically, wrecking cars has made for successful entertainment (I didn't say it was *good* entertainment!)
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Tuesday January 12 2021, @10:51PM
I disagree. 32 teams, each using hardware mandated by NASCAR but software of their own design? Sounds interesting as hell.
I remember 30-40 years ago they had a series where the top drivers drove cars as identical to each other as NASCAR could make them. So it was the driver and his team (this was pre-Danika) that won the race.
Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 13 2021, @03:30AM
You mean... like robot battles/sumo?
You will never know without trying. Turbocharging got used and percolated into consumer level through racing [bwauto.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 13 2021, @04:35AM
I can't actually see this being boring if raced at full speed.
Oval-track racing is generally a tightly-packed affair, so there are going to be big, 240MPH crashes.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:42PM
Not sure if this will turn into the CES21 thread or each will get their own. Anyhow I did find something more interesting then racing.
Startup claims its new wearable can monitor blood sugar without needles
https://www.engadget.com/quantum-operation-inc-wearable-glucose-121015450.html [engadget.com]
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday January 12 2021, @09:06PM
From one of the Perl Journal [www.foo.be]'s competitions to implement a prisoner's dilemma strategy:
If you could collude with one or two other entries to have them sacrifice themselves or act as obstacles, perhaps subtly, to hobble the other entrants [youtu.be], you could produce some interesting results.