Formula E To Launch Driverless Cars Race Series

Abu Dhabi: Mercedes Formula One boss Toto Wolff has dismissed plans for the world’s first driverless motor racing series as having little to do with sport, despite the German carmaker’s interest in the technology.

Formula E plans to launch ROBORACE as a support series, with each one-hour autonomous race running ahead of the human-driven electric auto racing series, shown at the top of this page.

It will be called Roborace and, according to a release from Formula E, “will provide a competitive platform for the autonomous driving solutions”.

There’ll be 10 teams each running two driverless cars.

The mission of Roborace is to demonstrate that the future of automot ive and information technology is already here and can even work in extreme conditions.

Whether a team wins or loses the race will be determined by its real-time computing algorithms and AI technologies.

“We are very excited to be partnering with Kinetik on what is surely one of the most cutting-edge sporting events in history”, said Formula E chief executive Alejandro Agag.

While talking about the motive behind the move, Denis Sverdlov, Founder of Kinetik and ROBORACE, said that they passionately believe that all vehicles in the world will be assisted by AI and powered by electricity in the coming time, which would improve environment and road safety. However, they do not want fans to miss the adrenaline peak they get for Formula 1 racing.

360-video recorded with the VR wireless cameras is meant to be streamed, so viewers could be able to feel the experience of the competition from driver’s point of view. “It’s a global platform to show that robotic technologies and AI can co-exist with us in real life”.