Disney Picture's popular animated film "Cars" is about to get real. Roborace just unveiled its self-driving race car powered by artificial intelligence.
The Robocar is the world's first ever autonomous race car. Roborace showcased the driverless speedster at the ongoing 2017 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The Robocar is powered by artificial intelligence and runs on electricity, not on Fillmore's bio-fuel or Sir Miles Axlerod's Allinol. What makes the Robocar smart are the presence of six AI cameras, five lidars, two radars, two optical speed sensors, 18 ultrasonic sensors, and GNSS positioning. The Nvidia Drive PX2, the brain of the smart race car, gathers and utilizes all data collected by the sensors.
Daniel Simon is the creative genius behind the design of the Robocar. Simon also happens to be responsible for creating the futuristic vehicles in "Tron: Legacy" and "Oblivion." According to Auto Guide, the Robocar measures 15 feet long and weighs 2,149 pounds. It is capable of reaching 198 mph thanks to four 300 kW motors along with a 540 kW battery. It will also use street legal tires courtesy of Michelin.
Roborace is a racing league that involves self-driving cars. Unlike today's standard races, the kind of car is not essential as all teams use the same Robocar. The results of the race will also not depend on the skills of a human driver. Instead, how well and how fast the cars can go will depend on the algorithms written by the teams. In essence, the better the algorithm, the higher the chances of taking home the prize.
Top Gear noted that a couple of prototypes were pitted against each other on a Buenos Aires race track last week. This marked the first time that two driverless electric vehicles were involved in a race.
The people behind Roborace are hoping that smart racing will further promote autonomous driving which is currently on the upswing thanks to numerous companies dipping their fingers into the potentially profitable industry and the possibility of doing away with human error in terms of driving. FedEx already is planning on utilizing the technology for its delivery trucks while a relatively unknown company called Embark recently unveiled its self-driving Peterbilt truck.
