World’s 1st Driverless Electric Racing Car

Originally published on Sustainnovate.

The electric racing championship firm Formula E has, together with Roborace, revealed the first images of its new “world’s first” all-electric, driverless racing car.

The Robocar model was designed by Formula E Chief Design Officer Daniel Simon — whose previous work includes designing the vehicles used in films such as Oblivion and Tron: Legacy. The image above certainly does give one the impression that Simon has spent a lot of time imagining what vehicles in the “future” will look like. I guess the future is here.

“My goal was to create a vehicle that takes full advantage of the unusual opportunities of having no driver without ever compromising on beauty,” Simon commented recently. “Racing engineers and aerodynamicists have worked with me from the beginning to strike that balance.”

Business Green provides some further details:

The Roborace series is set to run as part of the support package of the 2016–17 Formula E championship season, making it the first global championship for driverless cars.

Ten teams will compete in one hour races using two driverless cars each. As with the first season of the Formula E series all the cars will be the same, with the competition provided by the real-time computing algorithms and AI technologies used by the teams to drive the vehicles. The car uses the floor as its main aerodynamic device, which Simon said helps to generate substantial downforce while also avoiding unnecessary parts which clutter the car, providing a clean look.

“Today is an historic day for motorsport, and the car industry in general,” stated Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E. Agag also commented that the new model served as a harbinger of things to come, as far as driverless cars go: “In Formula E we are proud to promote, together with pioneers like Denis Sverdlov and Daniel Simon, a revolution in the world of motorsport, a project that will change the future of mobility.”

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