‘Roborace’ car makes street track debut in Marrakech
Story highlights
Driverless electrical racer completes profitable monitor take a look at in Marrakech, Morocco
Deliberate Roborace collection will see autonomous automobiles compete at System E ePrix weekends
(CNN) —
It’s a automobile kitted out with expertise its builders boldly predict will remodel our cities and alter the way in which we reside.
The autonomous “DevBot #1” took an enormous leap ahead in Morocco lately, making its debut on a road monitor on the System E Marrakech ePrix.
The battery-powered prototype is being examined for Roborace – a proposed race collection the place driverless automobiles will compete on short-term 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 advised 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 automobile showcases driverless future
Utilizing quite a lot of sensors – together with GPS, radar and ultrasonics – allied to stylish laptop applications, the automobile learns how you can navigate a monitor at velocity 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 venture.
“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 12 months’s host metropolis for the United Nations local weather change convention (COP22) – Cooke say the corporate will subsequent strive racing two automobiles collectively on monitor with the eventual purpose of getting as much as 10 automobiles competing at each System E ePrix weekend.
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
A brand new robotic race automobile collection is about to get underway in 2017.
PHOTO:
Roborace Ltd.
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
The deliberate “Roborace” collection is scheduled to be contested throughout System E championship weekends. Organizers have commissioned Daniel Simon — well-known for his work on films like “Tron: Legacy” — to design the race automobile.
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Daniel Simon
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For now, this prototype, referred to as the DevBot #1, is trialing the autonomous expertise.
Watch a video of it in motion right here
PHOTO:
Matt Knight/CNN
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
The battery-powered prototype can attain speeds of 215 mph (350 kph), in keeping with Roborace.
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Matt Knight/CNN
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
The “Roborace” collection is scheduled to begin in 2017 and can see 10 autonomous automobiles all competing on the identical monitor.
PHOTO:
Roborace Ltd.
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
The automobile efficiently navigated the monitor at System E’s Marrakech ePrix in November. The all-electric race collection will host robotic races throughout ePrix weekends.
PHOTO:
Matt Knight/CNN
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
The automobile has been developed by a small staff of engineers and laptop scientists. “With this car we have several kinds of sensors,” Sergey Malygin, Roborace’s Synthetic Intelligence developer, advised 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
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
“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
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
“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 information is then deciphered by algorithms which tells the automobile the place the partitions are and the place different automobiles are on the highway.
PHOTO:
Matt Knight/CNN
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
Roborace engineer, Matas Simonavicius, says every wheel is individually powered, offering extra stability and security.
“One motor drives one wheel,” Simonavicius advised 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
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
However are driverless automobiles a good suggestion?
“I think, yes,” Simonavicius says. “What’s the biggest cause of accidents at the moment? It’s human error.”
PHOTO:
Matt Knight/CNN
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
“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.
PHOTO:
Matt Knight/CNN
Pictures: Autonomous automobile revolution
“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 System 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.”