FIA Formula E has today announced the launch of ‘Roborace’, a driverless support series that is set to join the electric-powered championship’s roster for the 2016-2017 season.
In partnership with Kinetik, Formula E plans for Roborace to become a competitive platform for autonomous driving solutions and technologies.
“Roborace is aimed to take place prior to each Formula E race, using the same circuits in major cities across the world,” a statement reads.
“Ten teams, each with two driverless cars, will compete in one-hour races over the full championship season. All the teams will have the same cars however will compete using real-time computing algorithms and AI technologies.
“The mission of Roborace is to demonstrate that the future of automotive and information technology is already here and can even work in extreme conditions.
“Roborace believes that there is a lot of independent talents in the world that might contribute to this initiative. That is why one of the race teams will be organised as a crowd-sourced community team open for enthusiastic software and technology experts all over the world.”
Founder of Kinetik and Roborace Denis Sverdlov believes that the championship will be the perfect platform to showcase the advancements in autonomous driving and AI technologies.
“We passionately believe that, in the future, all of the world’s vehicles will be assisted by AI and powered by electricity, thus improving the environment and road safety,” Sverdlov said.
“Roborace is a celebration of revolutionary technology and innovation that humanity has achieved in that area so far. It’s a global platform to show that robotic technologies and AI can co-exist with us in real life.
“Thus, anyone who is at the edge of this transformation now has a platform to show the advantages of their driverless solutions and this shall push the development of the technology.”
Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag added: “We are very excited to be partnering with Kinetik on what is surely one of the most cutting-edge sporting events in history.
“Roborace is an open challenge to the most innovative scientific and technology-focused companies in the world. It is very exciting to create a platform for them to showcase what they are capable of and I believe there is great potential for us to unearth the next big idea through the unique crowd-sourced contest.”
