It looks like something straight out of a sci-fi film — and that’s probably because this new driverless car has been designed by the man who brought us the vehicles in the movie “TRON: Legacy.”
“TRON” was dubbed “the first movie inside of a video game” and the upcoming Roborace events are being billed by organizers FIA Formula E and investment company Kinetik as the world’s first driverless car racing series.
It’s a series — contested by 10 teams — where programmers rather drivers are to the fore, given they will be in charge of programming the artificial intelligence that drive the car.
Roborace chief design officer Daniel Simon — who also turned his talents to creations for the 2013 movie “Oblivion” starring Tom Cruise — said the futuristic world of the driver-free car had given him the opportunity to put beauty at the top of his agenda.
“The Roborace is as much about competition as it is entertainment,” Simon said in a statement. “Racing engineers and aerodynamicists have worked with me from the beginning to strike that balance.
“Therefore — and quite unusually in today’s racing world — beauty was very high on our agenda, and we worked hard to merge the best performance with stunning styling.”
Races will run on the same track as Formula E races on race weekends with technology company Nvidia providing the artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer — the Drive PX 2 — that will enable the car to navigate the circuit autonomously.
Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag, said the introduction of the Robocar “represents a vision of what cars will be” and called it “a vision of our future.”
The first Roborace events are scheduled to take place during the 2016-2017 Formula E season.
‘Pure intelligence’
“Roborace is by far the largest step that the racing industry has taken into the world of technology, and it is unlike anything the sports universe in general has seen,” wrote the Sport Techie website.
“Roborace is set to demonstrate that sports can be won on pure intelligence and brainpower — a trend that will certainly carry over into sports other than racing sooner than later.
“Seeing cars powered by nothing more than electricity and intellect race at 180 miles per hour will be amazing — and will further showcase the impact that technology can have on sports.”
