Slashdot Mirror
Self-Driving Car Speed Race Ends With A Crash (electrek.co)
An anonymous reader writes:On a professional track in Buenos Aires, fans watched the first Formula E auto race with self-driving electric cars. "Roborace's two test vehicles battled it out on the circuit at a reasonably quick 115MPH," reports Engadget, "but one of the cars crashed after it took a turn too aggressively. The racing league was quick to tout the safety advantages of crashing autonomous cars ('no drivers were harmed'), but it's clear that the tech is still rough around the edges." Electrek is reporting that the cars "still have a cabin for a driver but neither car's cabin was occupied during the event." The ultimate goal is to have several teams racing the exact same self-driving car, while letting each team customize its car's driving software.
An Argentinian journalist shared footage of the race cars on Twitter, and apparently at one point a dog wandered out in front of an oncoming race car. But the real question is how the fans are going to feel about watching a speed race between cars with no drivers?
An Argentinian journalist shared footage of the race cars on Twitter, and apparently at one point a dog wandered out in front of an oncoming race car. But the real question is how the fans are going to feel about watching a speed race between cars with no drivers?
The physical risk to the driver, and the driver's skill under pressure are what makes watching motor racing exciting.
Take them both away by replacing it with software and all you have is another boring nerdfest.
No excitement means no spectators. No spectators means no money. No money means no sport.
People watch racing because there is risk of a crash with humans in the cockpit. People drive in professional racing because there is a risk to themselves. Those things translate into money, jobs, technological advancements in vehicles (performance and safety). Take away the human element and it's like sitting and watching airplanes fly. Interesting for a few visits, but no sustainable market and not really entertaining. Put up a bar and bleacher stand, and it would be mostly empty.
Hell, look at the robot warrior events, which are cool but don't make money for any duration of time.
If they are doing this to build safety, no spectators needed. IMHO, bit whoop. Sarcastiball anyone?
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
People watch racing because there is risk of a crash with humans in the cockpit.
That is totally absurd. People love watching destruction, yes, but humans do not have to be involved for enjoyment - witness the great ratings shows like Robot Wars got, and those were glorified remote control cars. People just liked watching them violently disassemble each other...
The same will be true of e-racing. Fans will still thrill to a crash, because it will still show basically the same thing - a super expensive car disintegrating into scrap. In fact though it could be even more fun than human races since the rules could be altered such that AI cars had to drive through any wreckage present, no cleanup during the race. That would be awesome to see as AI did high speed moves to avoid scrap...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley