A Self-Driving Vehicle is about to Race at the Goodwood Festival of Speed

[thundercat]

Whilst its tech, it will be awesome but once marketing gets involved and sponsors wanting a more 'human' persona for the cars... might as well have stinky apes back in them. /always watch for the cars not the meat

 

[Jonas Bögemann]

This will never replace traditional racing forms. But it could very well be an alternative.
Racing is about the human performance and there are more requirements to winning that just driving a quick lap. I don't say that an AI can't do that, but I think that the brilliance required to do this is making the human aspect important.
No doubt AIs will be important in the future, but some things can't be replaced by them, that's no traditionalism or pessimism about the future, it's a fact.

I actually would find more interest in computers assisting the drivers through input about other drivers, the track condition, car condition and so on.

 

[Banoub]

Isn't the point of motorsports about human skill and the competitive spirit? I feel a self-driving car undermines the values.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

This will never replace traditional racing forms. But it could very well be an alternative.
Racing is about the human performance and there are more requirements to winning that just driving a quick lap. I don't say that an AI can't do that, but I think that the brilliance required to do this is making the human aspect important.
No doubt AIs will be important in the future, but some things can't be replaced by them, that's no traditionalism or pessimism about the future, it's a fact.

I actually would find more interest in computers assisting the drivers through input about other drivers, the track condition, car condition and so on.

Given the lack of human element, you might as well make it a destruction race but where's the interest in it other than the initial "wow, no driver" element? how would you identify with a particular team? why even build the car, and not just run it virtually?

There was a vid recently of Rossi racing a robot bike rider iirc, that is more interesting than this from a tech view.

The place I'd like to see computers more is in race control in a car, so drivers don't have to rely on marshall's flags so much ( I still don't know how they can even see them at Paul Ricard ) which would be a pretty good safety feature all by itself, if it blinked up a slow/spun car instantly, might well have prevented that huge race-ending shunt at Bathurst for instance. For multiclass racing it'd also help with traffic management, and I think at least one of the recent LMP cars had something like that?

I'd like to see *less* computerisation elsewhere, tbh. Either that or a retro racing series - not historics, but modern cars with electronics limited to an ECU you can't change in the car and perhaps tyre monitors so you can see if one has a problem before it bursts. Maybe a boost control if it's a turbo.

 

[InsaneOzzie]

Hmm. Amazing stuff, but what did it cost?, the price of building this motor-bot must of been huge. Personally, I can't see humans being comfortable with an AI controlled car chauffeuring us anywhere, now or in the future. The debate on AI intelligence taking over everything mixed with Hollywood movies has created a distinct weariness in AI from the homosapien point of view, and it's a touchy subject within the robotics AI world as well, and tech has enough of a control on our existence as it is. I'll stick to driving myself thanks.

 

[Jonas Bögemann]

I guess as always the most sane stance is to just not force anything. Enforcing or forcing against technology is both foolish.

 

[Dirk Steffen]

 

[RichardHessels]

Would be great for us if they share their LIDAR data.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

I see no point in this, but how about a driverless car being controlled remotely by a racing driver in a full-on motion-sim rig? No risk of injury to the driver, and the spectators get to watch real cars being driven by real people

 

[Richard Dastardly]

I see no point in this, but how about a driverless car being controlled remotely by a racing driver in a full-on motion-sim rig? No risk of injury to the driver, and the spectators get to watch real cars being driven by real people

Latency issues might make that a bit of a poor show. I'd rather watch people simrace than that, personally.

 

[wombat999]

A tech tour de force but a waste of money and resources.
I shudder at the thought of ANY form of AI controlled vehicle.

 

[LeSunTzu]

For city traffic it would probably be a big improvement though. On the race track it hardly makes sense as a show.

 

[Steve Worrell]

I don't know about this. It seems kind of pointless, sort of like watching a robot having sex with itself.

Do you know where I can find videos of that? Asking for a friend.

 

[Raikku]

We are doomed, doomed.

 

[UMC 22]

I see no point in this, but how about a driverless car being controlled remotely by a racing driver in a full-on motion-sim rig? No risk of injury to the driver, and the spectators get to watch real cars being driven by real people

The "risk" (or rather, the perception of one) is part of what makes racing exciting. Take it away and you make racing sterile, which would only be marginally more fun to watch than this robot thing. Love the tech, hate the idea of it being applied to an actual serious racing series.

 

[Turk]

You Log in, purchase a hour drive, software would sync your controllers, etc

Sim racers can't even deal with a bit of visual input lag on screen, never mind the kind of lag you'd get from being on the other side of the world.

I think self-driving cars are necessary, but I don't think a racing series with them is necessary. F1 is already enough of a "race of engineers" thing where the driver is not as important as it used to be. Completely removing it from the equation distorts the concept of the sport.

Probably, but having competitive AI development will advance the entire field. People who develop consumer cars are i their own little development bubble focused on consumer issues. Development like racing AI allows them to go off in tangents and come at the problem from new angles and maybe discover algorithms that the consumer guys just wouldn't.

Given the lack of human element, you might as well make it a destruction race but where's the interest in it other than the initial "wow, no driver" element? how would you identify with a particular team? why even build the car, and not just run it virtually?

They've already come up with a solution to that, virtual influencers. They're perfect for businesses, they can advertise brands without having any of the negative side effects that come with hiring humans. So they can give their racing AI's personalities and identities and most modern consumers will lap it up because advertisers have become experts at manipulating people.

 

[Paul Sutton]

The “eyes” are 5 LIDAR units, 18 ultrasonic sensors, 2 radar units, 2 optical speed sensors, 6 cameras, and a GPS navigation device And a partridge in a pair tree.

 

[Boby Kim]

Et voila, there we have the solution for the halo

 

[KaKeX]

I dunno why but i have a feeling that its gonna jump to the crowd

 

[destinationriver]

Technically it's very interesting, but it has nothing to do with "racing".