[ExI] [Bulk] Robot car racing!

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: [Bulk] [ExI] Robot car racing!

Formula E and Kinetik today announced a partnership with the intention to launch a global race series for driverless electric cars. This new championship called ‘ROBORACE’ will provide a competitive platform for the autonomous driving solutions that are now being developed by many large industrial automotive and technology players as well as top tech universities.

<http://fiaformulae.com/en/news/2015/november/formula-e-kinetik-announce-roborace-a-global-driverless-championship.aspx>...
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BillK

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This was as foreseeable as the sunrise.  The reason I see it as interesting is that racing is expensive as all hell, but in this case we might be limited by other factors besides the cars.  I don't know where is the state of the art on this, but on some kinds of tracks, such as a paved serpentine course, we might be more algorithm-limited than car limited.  We could convert any old beat up car and have sufficient power and handling to make the processor and control algorithms the thing that determines the lap times.  

We could set up a cone course in a big parking lot, like they do over at Lockheed Martin.  That sport allows normal people with normal budgets to play: you need an ordinary street car, special tires, a brake system upgrade and you are ready to go for a couple k over the price of the car.  We could do those kinds of races with software.  For a few fun years, amateurs can run with the big boys.

spike