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Roborace won't use a fully driverless car for its first season
Roborace has long talked of completely driverless cars hitting the track when its first season gets underway, but the company has had a change of heart. CEO (and Formula E winner) Lucas di Grassi has revealed to Motorsport.com that Roborace's "Season Alpha" will use a new DevBot 2.0 car with space for a human driver. The organic crews will take the wheel for part of the race, with the autonomous component taking control for the rest. Why the more conservative approach? It's a combination of shaping public perception and the nature of racing itself.
Roborace's self-driving car isn't faster than a human (yet)
Ever since Roborace unveiled plans for driverless track cars, there's been a lingering question: can its technology outpace a human? The answer is a solid "no..." for now. The company used the recent Formula E race in Rome to pit its DevBot prototype car against pro drifter Ryan Tuerck, and the fleshy driver was clearly the frontrunner with a roughly 26-second lead -- you can see him claiming victory in the video below. That's still in the ballpark of what you'd expect from humans, but they wouldn't be lining up sponsorships after that kind of performance.
Self-driving car race finishes with a crash
Fans attending Formula E's Buenos Aires ePrix got a nice treat: the first 'race' between self-driving cars on a professional track, courtesy of a test from Roborace. Only... it didn't quite go according to plan. Roborace's two test vehicles (known as DevBots) battled it out on the circuit at a reasonably quick 115MPH, but one of the cars crashed after it took a turn too aggressively. The racing league was quick to tout the safety advantages of crashing autonomous cars ("no drivers were harmed"), but it's clear that the tech is still rough around the edges.
ICYMI: Racecar drivers are being replaced by computers
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Formula E racing is gearing up for new robo-races with the DevBot, a hybrid vehicle that can be driven by a computer rather than a person. Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania tested injecting a new hydrogel into animals and find that it helps thicken up weak, damaged tissue after heart attacks. If you want to test out the Trump chatbot, that's here, though a look at the candidate's Twitter account will deliver the same information. Drone enthusiasts here for the Gameboy Classic controller will find the original video on YouTube. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
