‘Roborace’ car makes street track debut in Marrakech
Story highlights
Driverless electrical racer completes profitable observe take a look at in Marrakech, Morocco
Deliberate Roborace collection will see autonomous vehicles compete at Formulation E ePrix weekends
(CNN) —
It’s a automotive kitted out with know-how its builders boldly predict will rework our cities and alter the way in which we dwell.
The autonomous “DevBot #1” took an enormous leap ahead in Morocco just lately, making its debut on a road observe on the Formulation E Marrakech ePrix.
The battery-powered prototype is being examined for Roborace – a proposed race collection the place driverless vehicles will compete on non permanent metropolis circuits.
“It’s the first time we’ve run the Devbot in driverless mode on a Formula E track in the middle of a city street,” Roborace’s Justin Cooke informed CNN.
“It’s so exciting for the team who put hours and hours of work in. These guys were up to 1-2 a.m. in the morning developing a technology that no one else in the world is able to do at this speed and in these complicated environments.”
Learn: Electrical race automotive showcases driverless future
Utilizing quite a lot of sensors – together with GPS, radar and ultrasonics – allied to classy pc applications, the automotive learns navigate a observe at pace avoiding all obstacles.
“What we are doing is at the forefront of technology right now,” says Cooke, who can be CMO of Kinetik – an funding firm based by Russian businessman Denis Sverdlov which is offering monetary backing for the undertaking.
“There are two or three kinds of space races, if you will – some people are going to Mars, we’re developing robotic cars and I think it’s probably one of the most, if not the most exciting space in the world right now.”
After the profitable 30-minute take a look at in Marrakech – this yr’s host metropolis for the United Nations local weather change convention (COP22) – Cooke say the corporate will subsequent attempt racing two vehicles collectively on observe with the eventual purpose of getting as much as 10 vehicles competing at each Formulation E ePrix weekend.
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A brand new robotic race automotive collection is ready to get underway in 2017.
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Roborace Ltd.
Pictures: Autonomous automotive revolution
The deliberate “Roborace” collection is scheduled to be contested throughout Formulation E championship weekends. Organizers have commissioned Daniel Simon — well-known for his work on motion pictures like “Tron: Legacy” — to design the race automotive.
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Daniel Simon
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For now, this prototype, referred to as the DevBot #1, is trialing the autonomous know-how.
Watch a video of it in motion right here
PHOTO:
Matt Knight/CNN
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The battery-powered prototype can attain speeds of 215 mph (350 kph), in line with Roborace.
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Matt Knight/CNN
Pictures: Autonomous automotive revolution
The “Roborace” collection is scheduled to begin in 2017 and can see 10 autonomous vehicles all competing on the identical observe.
PHOTO:
Roborace Ltd.
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The automotive efficiently navigated the observe at Formulation E’s Marrakech ePrix in November. The all-electric race collection will host robotic races throughout ePrix weekends.
PHOTO:
Matt Knight/CNN
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The automotive has been developed by a small group of engineers and pc scientists. “With this car we have several kinds of sensors,” Sergey Malygin, Roborace’s Synthetic Intelligence developer, informed CNN. “First of all there are lasers measurements — light-based, so we have information about the 3D objects around us.”
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Matt Knight/CNN
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“Also we have cameras, radars, ultrasonics to get the information about other vehicles and base stations,” Malygin continues. “We also have precise positioning systems and optical speed sensors.”
PHOTO:
Matt Knight/CNN
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“To get this information inside (the car), process it and get a valuable understanding of what is happening around us that’s something that needs a lot of computing power,” Malygin explains. The uncooked knowledge is then deciphered by algorithms which tells the automotive the place the partitions are and the place different vehicles are on the street.
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Matt Knight/CNN
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Roborace engineer, Matas Simonavicius, says every wheel is individually powered, offering extra stability and security.
“One motor drives one wheel,” Simonavicius informed CNN. “This way you can do torque vectoring — you can control the power to wheels much better, how it drives and the performance it gives out. It’s more advanced than the conventional stability control ABS.”
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Matt Knight/CNN
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However are driverless vehicles a good suggestion?
“I think, yes,” Simonavicius says. “What’s the biggest cause of accidents at the moment? It’s human error.”
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Matt Knight/CNN
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“That’s why we want to bring this car into a controlled environment where you cannot hurt any people and you can prove that it works,” Simonavicius argues.
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Matt Knight/CNN
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“We’re trying to change people’s perspective of it. So they will see it at races and see it’s safe and does all these cool things.”
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Roborace Ltd
“To be here at COP22 when we are celebrating an electric future, a driverless future – it’s the perfect time for Roborace,” Cooke enthuses.
Go to cnn.com/motorsport for extra Formulation E information and options
“More than anything we want people to be excited about the technology because it’s going to change our lives, it’s going to transform our cities.”