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Roborace engineer explains why a driverless racecar drove into a wall
The SIT Acronis Autonomous car was doomed before the start of its fateful lap.
Watch a self-driving Roborace car drive directly into a wall
It's clear robotic racing has some bugs to sort out as a Roborace participant's AI car drove directly into a wall.
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 is still pursuing its driverless race-car dream
Clearly, Roborace doesn't believe in bad luck. Last week, on Friday the 13th, the company chose to run its self-driving Robocar in front of a feverish crowd at England's Goodwood Festival of Speed. It was only the second time the team had demonstrated its futuristic vehicle publicly, following an unassisted lap in Paris roughly 13 months ago. There was no room for error. The absence of a human cockpit gives the car an unusually low profile. Its delicate curves were drafted by Daniel Simon, a concept-vehicle designer who has contributed to science-fiction blockbusters including Tron: Legacy, Prometheus and Oblivion. The robot racer's shape resembles a Formula 1 car, the Batmobile and a heat-seeking missile mashed together. The machine moved slowly, though, up the famous hill-climb course. Well, slowly compared with the other vehicles that had tackled the Goodwood track that day. Roborace had capped the car at 125 KMH (roughly 78 MPH) to ensure it completed the route safely. In the world of motorsport, that's pretty slow. The robot's racing line, too, was conservative. It stuck to the center of the road, leaving plenty of tarmac on either side as it both entered and exited each corner. Ayrton Senna da Silva, it was not. Still, the drive was a milestone for the British startup. Thousands hugged the track-side hay bales and watched as the car zipped toward the finish line. In a little under two minutes, it had completed the course and returned to its dormant state. The Roborace team could breathe a sigh of relief.
Watch a self-driving car complete Goodwood's legendary hill climb
Want a hint of how the automotive zeitgeist is changing? You only need to look at the just-ended Goodwood Festival of Speed. Roborace has carved out a small niche in history with the first self-driving vehicle to successfully complete Goodwood's famous hill climb, where vehicles have to tackle a gradual 300-foot ascent that includes narrow hay- and brick-lined passages. It wasn't a flat-out assault, but the attempt (which was preceded by a practice run) went off without a hitch -- which you can't say for the other autonomous contender at the festival.
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.
How Roborace is building driverless race cars
The lights dimmed and a hush fell over the crowd. The last hour had been building to this. Denis Sverdlov, CEO of Roborace, and Daniel Simon, chief design officer, took a step back as some knee-high panels were taken away and a silky cloth was lifted, revealing a mechanical monster underneath. More than a year after the project's announcement, the pair had finally revealed their first production-grade Robocar: a fully electric, driverless race car built from the ground up for a new breed of motorsport. One where the heroes are programmers, concocting the smartest and most competitive AI drivers.
Roborace unwraps its driverless electric car
The team behind Roborace has taken a big step toward introducing a fully driverless racing competition. At a press conference in Barcelona, chief executive Denis Sverdlov and chief designer Daniel Simon revealed the final design for its track-ready "Robocar." We've seen images of the vehicle before, but they were merely renders; a hint of what the company was working on. The unveiling of a real car, all curves and carbon fiber, is our best evidence yet that the futuristic motorsport will actually happen.
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.
Formula E is getting electric trucks from the creator of Roborace
Electric truck firm Charge will supply Formula E with several electric trucks, it revealed at last weekend's race in Paris. The trucks will help shuttle equipment around the track. Interestingly, the CEO of Charge is also the CEO of Roborace, a forthcoming driverless racing series. (Curiously enough, Denis Sverdlov is also the CEO behind YotaPhone -- but back to the trucks.) According to The Verge report, investment firm Kinetik has pumped $500 million dollars into Charge -- a firm also run by Sverdlov. While the trucks use some fuel to extend how far they can run on a single charge, the EVs will help to keep with the spirit behind the scenes of the electric-powered races.
Roborace will feature futuristic, sci-fiesque driverless cars
The first driverless racing series (dubbed Roborace) might make you feel like you're watching a sci-fi flick. Not only because you'll be witnessing AI-controlled vehicles speeding on the race track with no human drivers, but also because the car contenders will use looks like it belongs in a movie set. See, Roborace's organizers commissioned Daniel Simon to design its official car. And Simon is also the designer behind the lightcycles in Tron: Legacy, Oblivion's drones and spaceships, as well as Captain America's Hydra vehicles.
