Goodwood Festival of Speed, a celebration of motorsport, both current and future. For the first time in the 25 year history of Goodwood, an autonomous vehicle took the challenge of running the 1.16 mile hillclimb, and crossed the finish line and propose a change to racing as we know it.
With significant design influences from Tron, the Roborace vehicle boasts more than 500 horsepower from an electric motor at each wheel. Weighing in at just over 2000lbs, the setup allows for a very low center of gravity as well as torque vectoring for faster cornering.
The company Roborace, which designed the vehicle is run by the Formula E champion Lucas Di Grassi, has a vision of a new racing series where all of the cars are physically identical, yet can set themselves apart through their programming of the car. A base program can be provided, or a team could start from scratch with their racecar.
Though no official time was released by the Festival of Speed, the run made by the vehicle makes it apparent that the programming can be made with confidence, and the vehicle has the performance to match. Cameras are located around the car that allow the vehicle to see its surroundings, and paired with the programming, confusion can be reduced from environmental factors like trackside flags, obstacles and signage.
While Formula E pushes for companies to invest into battery technology and provides a platform for manufacturers to display their research and development accomplishments, there is no autonomy in the series. Part of the theory behind a fully autonomous series is allowing the removal of driver aids from Formula 1, and to allow the cars to become more raw experiences again, and packing all of the tech advances into the autonomous series. I am not sure that it will work out that way, the autonomous series is not looking to compete with Formula 1 or Formula E, but to exist separately.
The advancement and development of these new cars will provide a benefit either way however, as they will bring an additional area of development. Currently the autonomous vehicle that ran at Goodwood has nVidia hardware inside, and with future development, has the potential to trickle down into more practical, every-day applications in self driving cars that are becoming a reality at snails pace.
Before we know it, even DARPA could have a successful race team.