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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.
VW's electric Pikes Peak racer is now the champion at Goodwood, too
VW made good on its promise to conquer Goodwood's Hillclimb with its pure electric race car soon after tackling Pikes Peak. The I.D. R Pikes Peak was the fastest vehicle to take on the legendary ascent at the Festival of Speed, finishing the climb in a brisk 43.86 seconds -- as you'll see in the video below, driver Romain Dumas outpaces the competition almost immediately. It's the first electric car to win the Festival's shootout, and certainly the fastest EV in the competition. Second place was also an EV -- Nio's EP9 was slightly slower at 44.32 seconds.
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.
McLaren's expanded eSports program includes mobile racing games
McLaren is enamored with eSports -- so much so that it's expanding the scope of its program. The 2018 edition of the Shadow Project promises to be more "open and inclusive" than you might expect, letting you compete for virtual motorsports glory not just with die-hard PC racing simulators like iRacing and rFactor 2, but more forgiving experiences like Forza Motorsport on the Xbox One and even a mobile game, Real Racing 3. It may seem counterintuitive for a performance car brand to accept competitors who may only ever play casual titles, but there's reasoning here -- it's not about the games so much as the intellect involved in playing them.
Watch VW's electric racer destroy the Pikes Peak record
When VW smashed Pikes Peak's all-time record with an electric car, there was one lingering question for those who couldn't see it live: where's the footage? You've got it now. VW has posted uninterrupted aerial footage of its I.D. R Pikes Peak racer's 7-minute 57-second hill climb, and the pace is as relentless as you'd expect -- the helicopter can barely keep tabs on the EV as it makes short work of undulating turns. Moreover, it's a good primer on why electric cars are well-suited to Pikes Peak.
VW electric racer smashes Pikes Peak's overall record
VW may have been overly cautious when it hoped to beat Pikes Peak's electric vehicle record with its purpose-built racer. Official lap time data has confirmed that Romain Dumas' I.D. R Pikes Peak made it up the legendary hill in just over 7 minutes and 57 seconds, crushing not only the EV record (8 minutes and 57 seconds) but the overall record (just over 8 minutes and 13 seconds in the Unlimited class). It managed that with an average speed of 90.5MPH, clearly trouncing the 83.5MPH of its closest competitor, a Norma M20 SF PKP.
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.
VW's electric Pikes Peak racer accelerates faster than an F1 car
After months of promises and teases, VW has formally unveiled its electric Pikes Peak race car... and its performance might be surprising even in light of earlier hype. The I.D. R Pikes Peak is built to smash Pikes Peak's EV record of 8 minutes and 57 seconds not through brute force, but by achieving a finely tuned power-to-weight ratio. While the 680HP two-motor powerplant may not sound like much when the existing record holder (Drive eO's PP100) packed a whopping 1,596HP, VW's vehicle will weigh under 2,500lbs versus 2,646lbs for its archrival.
Netflix will release a Formula 1 documentary series
Netflix is continuing its streak of scoring major sports originals. The streaming service has unveiled plans for a 10-episode documentary of Formula 1's 10-episode season with Senna's James Gay-Rees as one of the executive producers. The series will have "exclusive" access to drivers, team leadership and the league's own management, giving you a peek at the drama beyond the track. It should premiere sometime in early 2019.
VW unveils electric race car built to tackle Pikes Peak
Volkswagen is delivering on its promise of an electric car powerful enough to conquer the Pikes Peak hill climb. It has formally unveiled the I.D. R Pikes Peak, and the design is very clearly tailor-made for the job -- it looks more like a Le Mans machine than the relatively pedestrian I.D. models you've seen before. The company still isn't offering specs beyond four wheel drive. However, it's still determined to break the existing Pikes Peak electric vehicle record of 8 minutes and 57 seconds, which suggests it will have a monstrous amount of power. The current holder, a Drive eO PP100 driven by Rhys Millen, mustered 1,596HP.
Formula E's Montreal race cancelled over 'financial fiasco'
Formula E may be increasing acceptance of electric racing and EVs in general, but it has faced plenty of problems between bleeding cash (it lost $39.4 million US in the year ending July 2016) and races being moved or pulled in Brazil, Russia and the UK. And now, those problems just got magnified. Montreal has canceled its portion of Formula E after Mayor Valérie Plante's administration learned that the previous administration of Denis Coderre had committed up to $35 million CAD for the July 2018 race. Plante's team had only wanted to suspend the 2018 race to consider its options (such as moving from downtown to an established racetrack), but killed the race outright after Formula E said that a pause wasn't acceptable.
Jaguar plans a production EV racing series for 2018
To date, watching a full-fledged EV racing series has meant watching custom-built Formula E race cars. They're great to watch, but not exactly reflective of what you can drive on the road. Jaguar aims to fix that. It's launching the first production-based electric vehicle race series, the I-Pace eTrophy, as a support series for Formula E in late 2018. It'll run on the same tracks as Formula E, but it'll rely on (what else?) a track-optimized version of the upcoming I-Pace SUV. Up to 20 drivers will take part in each race in an "arrive and drive" package -- they'll need an international racing license, but Jaguar and the FIA will take care of vehicles and support.
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.
Audi drops Le Mans in favor of Formula E
Here's an unusual turn of events: Audi is dropping its best-known presence in motorsports. The car maker is terminating its FIA World Endurance Championship commitment, which includes 24-hour Le Mans races, in favor of a Formula E factory-backed team. If you ask executives, it's about reflecting long-term goals. Audi's regular cars are going electric in ever-larger numbers -- when its race cars are "technological spearheads," they have to go electric as well. The company already has a partnership in the league, but it'll have technical involvement from 2017 onward.
BMW partners with a Formula E racing team
BMW has already dabbled in Formula E between an i3 medical car and an i8 safety car, but it's ready to commit to the electric racing league in a much bigger way. The German brand has unveiled plans to "cooperate closely" with the Andretti Formula E team over two seasons. It's primarily promising engineering and resource sharing, but BMW has greater ambitions: it's studying the methodology of the league to consider the possibility of "works involvement" (that is, direct operation of a team) in the 2018-2019 season.
Dubai will host the World Future Sports Games in 2017
Apparently, the World Drone Prix was just the tip of the robotic sports iceberg. Dubai has announced that it's holding the World Future Sports Games, a broader competition, in late December 2017. The tech-focused event will include drone races as well as "robotic swimming, running, wrestling and car racing" -- basically, it's the Olympics for automatons. If it's successful, the plan is to hold the Games every two years after that.
Formula 1 coverage moves from BBC to Channel 4 next season
As the latest Premier League auction has shown, obtaining live TV rights to prestigious sporting events is expensive. It's unsurprising, therefore, to hear that the BBC is cutting back on its coverage to meet its new savings targets, starting with Formula 1. The broadcaster currently shows 10 races each season, as well as highlights from the other nine aired by Sky. It's now prematurely ending its contract, however, and giving Channel 4 the opportunity to take over from next year. Channel 4 is getting a three-year deal -- the amount that was left on the BBC's contract -- and has promised zero advertising breaks like its predecessor during each live race.
The new Formula E cars sound like upset cats
The second season of Formula E kicks off in October, and there's one key difference for the championship's sophomore year: custom batteries and motors. The teams are now able to experiment with the car's powertrain, which includes the e-motor, inverter, gearbox and cooling system. That means the cars will perform differently on the track, adding a little extra strategy and excitement to the proceedings. What we didn't expect, however, is the sound of the cars to change -- watch the video below for a glimpse at how they'll be screeching off the starting grid. Is it me, or do they all sound like confused felines?
NASCAR's first hydrogen-powered pace car hits the track
NASCAR may be dominated by gas-guzzling racers, but its pace car this weekend is decidedly kinder to the environment. The motorsport league's Sprint Cup race in Richmond on the 26th (delayed from the 25th due to rain) has Toyota's hydrogen-powered Mirai as its pace car -- the first time a fuel cell car has had that distinction at a NASCAR event. This is largely a publicity stunt to build up hype for the Mirai's Californian launch later this year, but it shows that hydrogen cars have the performance needed to keep up with stock cars during yellow flags. The real challenge will be getting the actual competitors to go green. While there have been hydrogen-fueled race cars before, the odds are that NASCAR and its fans aren't eager to abandon roaring V8s any time soon.
