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Michael Schumacher’s family plans to sue German tabloid for AI-generated ‘interview’
This week, a German tabloid tested the boundaries of AI passing itself off as reality. Celebrity magazine Die Aktuelle published a cover story in its April 15th issue about a supposed interview with Formula One driver Michael Schumacher; only at the end does it reveal that it was a hoax produced entirely by an AI chatbot. Schumacher’s family says it plans to take legal action against the gossip rag.
Audi will join Formula 1 as a hybrid engine supplier for 2026
Audi will join F1 to produce hybrid V6 engines from the 2026 season.
Recommended Reading: The eerie props on 'Severance'
Recommended Reading highlights the week's best writing on technology and more.
Triumph is developing its first electric motorcycle
British motorcycle manufacturer Triumph has announced a new program that'll help speed up its development of electric motorbikes. The project, working title TE-1, aims to develop an electric motorcycle powertrain in just two years, and it's got some pretty heavyweight partners involved to help it achieve this goal.
'F1 2016' gets 22-player support for online multiplayer races
F1 fans, get ready for a whole new kind of race, as F1 2016 will be adding 22-player online racing and a host of new features for this year's iteration of the official Formula One World Championship video game.
BBC's Sport apps now deliver real-time F1 notifications
It's been almost six months since the BBC updated its iOS and Android Sport apps to deliver real-time football notifications, giving fans the ability to receive goal updates while on the move. However, football isn't the only sport the Beeb allocates a huge amount of resources to: it also shares live Formula 1 coverage with Sky. In an new update today, the BBC Sport team is giving F1 fans some mobile love by extending push notifications to cover practice, qualifying and results for the remaining F1 races of the 2014 season. Out for the day for the final double-point race in Abu Dhabi at the end of the month? The BBC now has you covered.
The future of Formula 1 could involve AR headsets and farting
What's the next frontier for F1? If these guys get their way, races will be run on intelligent tracks, drivers will wear augmented reality headsets and cars will breathe air for extra thrust. Team Lotus and the energy drink Burn (nope, us neither) have teamed up to produce Human Ignition, a documentary that imagines what Formula 1 could be like in 2022, while also telling you that energy drinks are really rad (it's embedded, in three parts, after the break). One of the concepts offered up was that the driver would wear an AR helmet that showed them the airflows around their vehicle, making it easier to slipstream their rivals. Another would be to have the cars re-shape their gills in motion in order for them to "breathe," drawing in more air and forcing it out for more thrust coming out of a bend. After which, the designers thought about how those jets could be used to create "dirty wind," channeling the airflow to prevent your rivals from slipstreaming you. Nasty. [Image credit: Burn]
F1 Challenge races to iOS
Codemasters launched a new Formula One racing game on iPhone and iPad today called F1 Challenge. For $2.99 (£1.99 in the UK), players can engage in 90 racing events with officially-licensed F1 drivers, cars and teams. Players are also given the opportunity to "recreate thrilling moments from the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship," such as out-pacing racers like Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in order to unlock Formula One facts and information. F1 Challenge features a top-down, isometric view with simple touch controls for steering and Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) speed boosts that can be optimized for left or right-handed players.
Sony axing Liverpool game studio, ends Psygnosis' 28-year history
Sony has confirmed that it's shuttering Studio Liverpool, more famously known as Psygnosis. The publisher was founded in 1984 and is responsible for a legion of best-selling titles including Lemmings, Colony Wars, Destruction Derby, Wipeout and the Formula One games. In a statement, the company said that after a review of its "commercially viable" projects, it's focusing on projects in other parts of the business -- after slashing the studio's remit in a cost-cutting exercise in 2010. The facility is also the location of the company's European Quality Assurance team, which will reportedly remain in operation.
Victory: The Age of Racing changes publishers, burns rubber into beta
It's been quite some time since we last heard from Vae Victis regarding its F2P racing MMO, Victory: The Age of Racing. The game was originally slated to be a 1960s Formula One racing title, but over time it has evolved to take place in a distant, post-apocalyptic future when humanity has been reduced to small pockets of survivors. Maybe said survivors held a council meeting to decide what they should be doing with their time: repopulating the earth, planting sustainable crops, scavenging for food... the choices are endless. But apparently one thing was more important than all that: racing. Victory was originally picked up to be published by GamersFirst, but after three years of deliberation, Vae Victis decided to self-publish the title "to best fulfill each particular need it will have and finally create the best possible product for our beloved players." The official post goes on to announce the initiation of Victory Beta 1, which is "a new version of the game that offers dozens of new features and fixes," such as the addition of a matchmaking system, achievements, new game modes, the Pro class for experienced players, and much more. For the full details, head on over to Vae Victis' blog, and then click on over to the game's official site to get behind the wheel.
F1 2011 turns and burns out its first gameplay trailer
Codemasters has released the first gameplay trailer for F1 2011, the racing game for fans who think regular cars look fat. F1 2011 will be the first HD Formula One title with split-screen multiplayer, which helps explain the trailer's tagline, "Go Compete!"
British Grand Prix: A rare glimpse behind the McLaren-Mercedes F1 team (video)
Jealous much? Don't be. I had to sacrifice my ears to the roaring engines at Silverstone last Friday, just for you lovely people. While the Formula One teams were taking a break from the Grand Prix practice sessions, I was able to sneak into the pit area and get up close to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes' shiny stallions -- no touching allowed, naturally, but I did learn a thing or two about their pre-race preparation. And to top things off, legendary driver Jenson Button also popped by to share some thoughts on McLaren's F-duct system (a cunning and legal trickery that lets the driver's left leg redirect airflow over the rear wing in order to stall the flap, thus reducing drag when doing straights), as well as a few grumbles about the sharp corners on the recently renovated circuit. Video's after the break, and be sure to crank up your speakers for maximum sensation.%Gallery-97407%
F1 boss Ecclestone says no high definition feed until 2012
Bad news for Formula One fans worldwide, as Bernie Ecclestone told the media we will likely have to wait until 2012 to get a glimpse of the racing series in high definition. Trailing every other autosport federation we can think of, and nearly every sport in existence, F1 spent the weekend during the Canadian GP testing HD and even 3D cameras and feeds, but according to Ecclestone there aren't enough viewers that want it. Andrew Barratt, vice president of F1 sponsor LG backed Ecclestone's assertions, calling F1 "the most technical sport in the world to shoot" and saying the differences in the varied locales make it tough to get right, in his comments to Autosport. From our perspective, it was shocking when we couldn't watch the US GP in F1 in 2007, that it could take five more years to make the jump is nothing short of ridiculous.
Codemasters hits the track this September with F1 2010 for PC, Xbox 360 & PS3
[IF1 2009; Wii] Having dominated the rally track with DiRT and DiRT 2, and taken a lap around the street-racing arena with GRiD, Codemasters has announced it's now tossing its hat into the Formula One ring with F1 2010. Yeah, we kind of expected some weird capitalization, too. It'll run on Codemaster's EGO Game Technology Platform engine, so at least we know it'll have that in common with its predecessors. This new title will release on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC this September, the press release states. F1 2010 will be the official game of the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship, containing "all of the official teams, drivers and circuits from the coming season." There will be a career mode, along with championship, grand prix and time trial modes to keep you busy putting rubber to asphalt. Look for F1 2010 this September on Games For Windows Live, Xbox 360 and PS3. [Via Big Download]
Aigo "revs up" Formula One-themed PMP with 720p output
Unlike certain other Chinese devices, the Aigo Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP5 personal media player is actually a working, fully-featured PMP with support for FM radio, eBooks, and an adequate variety of audio and video formats -- it even outputs 720p content, though its own display is limited to 480 x 272. While Aigo's sponsorship of the McLaren Mercedes Formula One car is this thing's excuse for existence, it's technically also under the company's Patriot name (it's called the Patriot MP5-MK3510) but we're guessing the F1 theme will be more attractive to the Y chromosome than Winnie the Pooh. [Via PMP Today]
Codemasters making official Formula One game
Codemasters, makers of racing titles DiRT and the upcoming GRID are adding yet another racing game to their repertoire. The company has recently acquired an official license to make an authentic Formula One title. This worldwide deal gives Codemasters the rights to feature all Grand Prix circuits, teams, cars, and driver likenesses. The first game based off the FIA Formula One World Championship is expected to launch in 2009. That's the first, which means there's probably going to be multiple titles down the line.[Via press release]
Formula One to introduce hybrid Kinetic Energy Recovery System in 2009
While it's not exactly enough to turn Formula One green, the racing league at least looks to be taking some steps in that direction, with it now announcing that it plans to phase in a new hybrid transmission system starting in 2009. Unlike hybrid systems found in regular cars, however, the so-called Kinetic Energy Recovery System (or KERS) doesn't store up energy in a battery, but instead captures kinetic energy during vehicle deceleration using a flywheel mechanism. That apparently not only makes it particularly well-suited to Formula One cars due to their repeated deceleration, but also has the added benefit of being significantly lighter than a battery-based hybrid system, with it adding just 55 pounds to the weight of the car. Not surprisingly, however, the phase-in won't exactly happen overnight, with it set to extend out until 2013, during which time it'll also be tied to other changes aimed at reducing the size and output of the engines.[Via Autoblog Green]
Formula One reaches 8,000 sold copies on day... one
Wow, Japan is surprisingly in the mood for racing games. When MotorStorm went up to the top of the sales charts, we should have known that Formula One, released on December 28th, would gobble up its fair share of yen. It did just that, selling around 8,000 copies on its first day -- it's probably crossed the 10,000 mark by now. Our question then becomes: will this translate to positive reviews and decent sales stateside and... Europe-side? Both are already fairly fervent racing fans, but there's been a lot of ho-hum press about the stale Japanese build of MotorStorm and I'm personally not aware of Formula One being a top-seller in recent history in the US. Perhaps it has, but it's not coming to mind. What do you guys think? Is the PS3 becoming the racing console?
