RoboRace - An autonomous support series for Formula EOpen Wheel 

AudiMan2011

AudiMan2011

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http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/...oborace-a-global-driverless-championship.aspx

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122006

A new support series for Formula E has recently been announced dubbed RoboRace. A 10 round open challenge for teams to develop autonomous racing cars. 10 teams will race 2 driverless cars each for 1 hour races prior to the Formula E events. Teams will be allowed to develop their own AI algorithms for the spec hardware that will be supplied.


The new series is part of a partnership between Formula E and Kinetik and is set to be a part of Formula E's 2016/17 season.

What are your thoughts on a series for autonomous cars?
 
AudiMan2011
What are your thoughts on a series for autonomous cars?
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My money's on M.Rossi from the Forza series, either for the win or pure entertainment.

This series is a good idea as long as it can provide an entertaining spectacle. Motorsport in higher Formula categories should, imo, represent the frontiers of tech-development. Autonomous travel is coming (hopefully faster than the infamous Google-mobile), I'd be interested to see this series :D
 
Well this should be interesting for a few rounds, but I dont know how long interest will last other then the intrigue of what's going on, (driverless cars)

But my main interest in motor racing is the human element of watching 2 drivers take their cars to the absolute limit of adhesion and knowing that any small error, as much as misjudged braking point or a brake lock, mistimed gear change can alter the outcome, with artificial intelligence we wont see any of this going on, which is very much uninteresting,
 
The Red Bull X cars looks highly doable now. PD have the virtual data over several real world tracks. They could program any track into the car, press the X button and eat some popcorn. The longer races, they can use a rubber band to hold the joysticks together on the ovals.
 
prisonermonkeys
HAL Grand Prix
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"And they want to switch the tyre strategy for Team HAL's 9000 model... we're hearing there's a problem, apparently the AI is refusing to follow orders. Team boss Dave Bowman has told us he's getting repeated messages saying "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't let you do that"
 
jimipitbull
I would have thought the 'sport' in motorsport, by definition, would need to involve physical exertion.
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Sport doesn't necessarily involve physical exertion. Bridge, darts, chess, gaming, all require no substantial physical strength, yet they're still sports. A sport is just some form of organised competition - it doesn't specify what can and can't be challenged in order to define it as one. The challenges in this will be in the human programming and technological understanding - it shares elements with gaming, for instance. It's a new branch for motorsport, but it's definitely a relevant one for the future.
 
Bo
Great to see people wanting motorsport to stay relevant and survive heading into the future.
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A big part of racing is the human component and the biggest component of them all is the driver, if you take that away there isn't much left as let's face it, nobody pays to watch them setup Lewis Hamilton's car.

As for relevancy, I'd imagine plenty of people said similar things about the various horse competitions in the early 1900's when the automobile was starting to catch on. Last I checked they seem to still be going strong after all these years even though they are completely irrelevant for transportation outside of Amish communities.

As for the series itself, it's kind of hard to tell how it will be since we don't even know what the cars will look like or how they will be controlled. I think it will be hard for it to be anything more than a gimmicky racing series that fizzles after 3 seasons.
 
Endurance racing was to test the reliability of cars. Formula 1 was to innovate as much as possible. Racing was always about trying to make the car more efficient than everyone else (and then regulations came and balance is performance etc but that's a different story).

Formula E is about trying to innovate in batteries and electricity which is definitely our next power source especially after "dieselgate". This is about trying to innovate autonomous vehicles and considering there's already autonomous vehicles being tested on the road, it's about time we see who can make theirs the fastest and most efficient. It's the future. Time moves on.
 
catamount39
and now a support series of giant R/C cars
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Nope.

RC cars ave human input. RC racing is, by its nature, exactly like full size racing, except the driver sits outside of the car.

If people don't think that cars without drivers in will draw any interest, I will point to RC racing to say otherwise. After many years of being a niche category of motorsport, TV coverage has boosted interest significantly, and I know from discussing it with motorsport media outlets it's on the road to being more mainstream. The same will happen with this.
 
The whole Formula E and Roborace concept is to use motorsport to develop future technologies. There is so much technology on the roads that came about because of motorsport, and this is just the next step. Electric cars are currently not great. By making a competitive sport from it, manufacturers will pour money into making the motors more reliable, longer lasting and everything so it soon trickles into the normal market. Roborace is doing the same thing, trying to get them to just be better than they currently are.

However, I can just see turn 1 of the first race ever being a massive pileup. :lol:

Which brings me onto a practical note. As a marshal, what the hell would I have to do there? How will they see and obey flag rules? How will they slow down in a yellow flag zone for example. So what happens when one does crash, how is it supposed to be cleaned up safely? And what if the car goes rogue and drives through an escape road gap? Quite a few extra safety considerations need to be thought of.
 
Jimlaad43
Which brings me onto a practical note. As a marshal, what the hell would I have to do there? How will they see and obey flag rules? How will they slow down in a yellow flag zone for example. So what happens when one does crash, how is it supposed to be cleaned up safely? And what if the car goes rogue and drives through an escape road gap? Quite a few extra safety considerations need to be thought of.
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They have to be kill-switchable for sure.
 
A basic ability to recognise and process colours is a must. Remote immobilisation would probably be the last resort.
 
The flag system will most likely be remote commands rather than visual cues. So, let's say for the yellow flag
(if_flags.yellow=1) set speed=0-30
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A very basic (and no doubt wrong) code where the variable (flags.yellow) is increased up to 1** then the speed will be from 0-30 mph depending on track speed data because if it was just 30, they wouldn't brake for a corner if they needed to.

**thinking about it, it's more likely to be greater or equal to 1 for different zones in which case they'd have to add different variables for different sectors
 
There is no need for flags at all. They are there to communicate the track condition to the driver.. no driver, no need for flags. Race control could possibly transmit a "yellow code" directly to all cars, and I'm sure all teams would have to evidence that their software took the necessary action upon receipt of the signal.
 

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