Mainstream cars for pedestrian use are no longer the only automobiles that are witnessing a shift to all-electric. While people are ditching their Hummers and GMC SUVs for Tesla sedans that go 200 miles on a single overnight charge, the racing industry has also started making use of vehicles that don’t need gas. The 2014 inauguration of Formula E — which is, for all intents and purposes, the all electric version of Formula One — brought electricity to single-seat auto racing, and an upgrade to Formula E is set to make not just gas, but also people, obsolete.
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The upgrade, first announced four months ago, is called Roborace. Developed by Formula E, Roborace is a ten-team competition in which every team will make use of two of the same all-electric car (to ensure that physical parameters don’t impact the contest). The catch, though, is that each team will be in charge of programming the artificial intelligence that will drive the car… because, well, it doesn’t make use of physical human drivers. And unsurprisingly, the car looks incredible, which was expected — the Roborace car was designed by Daniel Simon, who was the brains behind the design in Disney’s Tron: Legacy.
Roborace is by far the largest step that the racing industry has taken into the world of technology, and it is unlike anything the sports universe in general has seen. It’s no secret that the line dividing sports and technology disappears a little bit more almost everyday, but the insertion of artificial intelligence into the sports world, which so famously shows off the physical skills of people?
Roborace is set to demonstrate that sports can be won on pure intelligence and brainpower — a trend that will certainly carry over into sports other than racing sooner than later. So what I said before is partially incorrect; Roborace is not going to make people obsolete to the sport of racing, it’s just going to vastly change the way that they impact it.
Racing is the perfect sport for artificial intelligence to make its grand entrance into commercial competition. Fundamentally, there are not too many physical factors that affect how good someone is at racing — outstanding focus and quick reflexes are essentially the two qualities that racers need to have, and those are possible to emulate with artificial intelligence. But how artificial intelligence finds its way into, say, basketball and baseball (if it ever does), which require significant game-time decision making, will be a true test of whether brains will be able to overcome brawn in the sports world.
Roborace will be both fun and mesmerizing to watch. Seeing cars powered by nothing more than electricity and intellect race at 180 miles per hour will be amazing — and will further showcase the impact that technology can have on sports.