The world’s first completely autonomous car race was completed last week at the Monteblanco racetrack in Spain. You could say that history was made actually. Two teams had their coding and cars go against one another with Team Arrival beating the Technical University of Munich to win the first-ever Roborace.
The autonomous cars that were competing in the roborace are not to be taken lightly. These electric race machines come with 300-kW (402-hp) and are capable of achieving speeds of more than 320 km/h onboard. By making use of five LIDARs, two radar, 18 ultrasonic sensors, GNSS satellite positioning, six cameras, Nvidia Drive PX2 processing units, and two optical speed sensors; the cars can drive themselves in accordance with the algorithms that have been programmed by each team.
The eight-lap roborace format may seem weird. In order to keep the crashes to a minimum during the early pioneering days; no overtaking outside the main straight is allowed. Furthermore, overtaking is achieved only via mutual agreement. Let’s say that a car is close enough to the car in front in the ‘trigger zone’ before the final turn; it will request an overtake from the car in front that will have to move over and allow the car to overtake.
As of right now, the roborace is not a great spectacle despite the fact that the cars are quick enough. However, without the daring skillset of a human driver; the only people interested in the roborace are the ones who are in the autonomous development industry. Nonetheless, the first roborace has been completed, and you can actually see the highlights of it below. We would like to congratulate Team Arrive and Roborace series on debut.
Do let us know what you think of the roborace and if you have any suggestions to make it more interesting.