yeah, great idea, no one will watch it

[lickatysplit]

sorry if this has been covered.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-375...

I can't see myself ever watching driverless cars on a track. It'd be like watching those old Demo races on gran Torismo lol

[Vocal Minority]

It'll have an audience - but a very limited one. Mostly tech fans who are usually anti-sport.

It won't get close to regular sport as there is no human element - and people love the human element.

Which is why the majority at Silverstone have Lewis Hamilton flags, not Mercedes ones.

(the notable exception of course being Monza....but to the Tifosi a Ferrari is a living breathing thing anyway)

[anonymous-user]

Here's an idea. Instead of wasting all that money running and building these things why not just develop the ai and algorithms for a computer game?

The geeks should be just as happy with that and the rest of us won't even know about it.

Amazing how the point can be missed sometimes; just what is this aimed at?

[anonymous-user]

I came in here and was expecting posts about formula E
Completely pointless, money wasted. Who wants to watch that?? Much like formula E.

[MitchT]

Maybe if they were going round ovals at super silly speeds there'd be some appeal.

[Tubes63]

I suppose the appeal here is that by making it an AI car they should eventually be able to get it to go around the track faster than any human ever could - the computer will always think faster than a human and so if you can load its brain with enough gumpf it will drive faster as well... Which means the fastest Motorsport could well eventually be one with no humans involved. No need for a cabin, better aero, lighter, fewer safety concerns etc. You could end up seeing cars lapping tracks at speed that truly boggle the mind.

That said, I can't see myself watching robots driving cars any time in the next ten years. As someone said above, about as interesting as watching the ai on a video game.

[lickatysplit]

if every computer is programmed the same you would get every car posting exactly the same time, 20 cars all on pole lol

[anonymous-user]

There was a racing car strategy game donkeys years ago for the Amiga or something. You put in all the data at the start and set things like handling, top speed etc but you only had say ten bars to allocate so couldn't set everything to max but at Monza for example, went for top speed over grip.You also choose tyre compound and number of pit stops. Then you pressed go, went downstairs for tea, came back and found out where you'd finished!... Inevitably it would rain and you'd crash on slicks or you'd get punted by Alfonso Phukwit or someone and have to reload the last saved game again!!!

[DiscoColin]

I am thinking that this might work were they to give it a Robot Wars edge. Contact allowed with hostile accoutrements permissible on the cars.... I'd certainly tune in for that ;-)

[ayseven]

How is this different than drones? Drones are getting more and more popular, for filming races in my neck of the woods, for example.

Not all racing is for TV. Some of us cannot even get crews together for our races, let alone fans. And we are in some pretty nice formula cars.

[groomi]

REALIST123 said:

Amazing how the point can be missed sometimes; just what is this aimed at?

I tend to agree with you regarding the popularity element, but with regards to what is the point - well it's very obvious. Racing has always been used to improve the technology of a car. The latest thing for cars is autopilot - so racing a load of cars on autopilot is how they will use the element of competition to improve the speed, decisiveness and all-round ability of the autopilot software.

Would you be happy to jump in a Tesla and press autopilot right now, or after witnessing the technology proving itself on a racetrack for a year or two?

Who knows, perhaps the racing might even be more interesting because nobody has to worry about weaving in the braking zones etc as there is no life at risk?

[anonymous-user]

groomi said:

REALIST123 said:

Amazing how the point can be missed sometimes; just what is this aimed at?

I tend to agree with you regarding the popularity element, but with regards to what is the point - well it's very obvious. Racing has always been used to improve the technology of a car. The latest thing for cars is autopilot - so racing a load of cars on autopilot is how they will use the element of competition to improve the speed, decisiveness and all-round ability of the autopilot software.

Would you be happy to jump in a Tesla and press autopilot right now, or after witnessing the technology proving itself on a racetrack for a year or two?

Who knows, perhaps the racing might even be more interesting because nobody has to worry about weaving in the braking zones etc as there is no life at risk?

Technology is rarely developed through racing and, to the point, getting a car to lap a circuit driverless has no relevance to the needs of such a system on the road.

I'll 'jump in a Tesla and press autopilot' when it has been shown to work on the road. And, of course, when the cost of doing that isn't laughably exhorbitant.

[EDLT]

Getting a driverless car to go around a track is a lot easier than getting one to work on the road, everything is travelling in the same direction and there are no pedestrians, stray dogs, pot holes etc to worry about.

[The Nur]

EDLT said:

Getting a driverless car to go around a track is a lot easier than getting one to work on the road, everything is travelling in the same direction and there are no pedestrians, stray dogs, pot holes etc to worry about.

Surely the problem arises when the cars are competing for the same space on track at the same time?

[TommoAE86]

What are people's opinions on iracing on motors tv? For those without the channel it seems to be real people racing in simulators and it broadcast out like a tv show. If they wanted to get any interest they could start with improving the graphics, looks like something from the PS2 era and the cars look like wooden blocks moving around. I can't see it being popular for a very long time yet.

[groomi]

REALIST123 said:

Technology is rarely developed through racing and, to the point, getting a car to lap a circuit driverless has no relevance to the needs of such a system on the road.

I'll 'jump in a Tesla and press autopilot' when it has been shown to work on the road. And, of course, when the cost of doing that isn't laughably exhorbitant.

EDLT said:

Getting a driverless car to go around a track is a lot easier than getting one to work on the road, everything is travelling in the same direction and there are no pedestrians, stray dogs, pot holes etc to worry about.

You're missing the point. Technology is ofcourse developed through racing. Always has been and probably always will be.

The point of racing is to do things quicker than anyone else. In this context that means understanding what's going on around them quicker, deciding what to do quicker and making the manouvre quicker. This is all stuff that is relevant to the road because it's all about refinement of systems to detect, decide and react in the quickest possible way - exactly what you need for crash avoidance for example.

Making a car self drive around a track quickly (such as the Audi on Top Gear a couple of months ago) is relatively easy. Making something do that and race with other cars at the same time is something that as far as I am aware has not been done before. I imagine the existing self drive cars being developed are designed on a very cautious basis letting others go first by default if a situation is questionable - such a setup would be hopeless in racing, so this will really force a new direction into the technology development.