The inaugural championship of Roborace, the world's first motorsport race contested by autonomous electric racing cars with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms as their drivers, will take place in Hong Kong on Oct. 9 along with the start of the 2016-17 Formula E racing season.
These AI-driven racing cars are called DevBots and two of them raced against each other for the first time ahead of the start of the 2017 Buenos Aires ePrix race in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Feb. 18. This is the first time two AI-driven DevBots have raced against each other.
One of the DevBots crashed while the other finished the race after achieving a top speed of 186 km/h.
"The car was damaged, for sure, but it can be repaired. And the beauty is no drivers get harmed because ... there is no one in them," said Justin Cooke, Roborace's chief marketing officer.
The Devbots, which currently don't look anything like the aerodynamic Formula E and Formula 1 racers, are controlled by AI software and use a laser-based Lidar (light detection and ranging) system and other sensors to guide themselves. They also communicate to avoid colliding with each other.
The DevBots will be shown to the public for the first time August 24 during the Formula E open practice sessions at the Donington Park circuit in the United Kingdom. Roborace organizers intend to replace these prototype DevBots with sleeker models when the competition formally launches in Hong Kong.
Ten teams will compete in the inaugural race, but their identities haven't been revealed. Each team will have two cars each on the 20-car grid in the inaugural race.
The prototype DevBots, however, can accommodate a human driver. Roborace says this will allow the teams to "fully understand how the car thinks and feels on a racetrack alongside the comprehensive real-time data."
Roborace says it has been testing DevBots for about nine months on airfields and racetracks.