[ExI] where's the robocar races?

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of
BillK via extropy-chat
Sent: Friday, May 7, 2021 12:29 PM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Cc: BillK <pharos at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ExI] where's the robocar races?

On Fri, 7 May 2021 at 20:09, Sherry Knepper via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> I read about an upcoming autonomous car race involving school students.
Is there another?
>

Yes. Roborace.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roborace>
Quote:
Roborace is a competition with autonomously driving, electrically powered
vehicles. Founded in 2015, it aims to be the first global championship for
autonomous cars.
----------------



>...Formula E is electrically powered cars with human drivers.

BillK
_______________________________________________


Ja, I am looking to get away from human drivers, regardless of the format.
I do think the whole notion of electric car racing is cool and want to see
that too.

In 2005 they set up a Grand Prix course in downtown San Jose.  There was a
young female driver who was attracting a lot of attention to the sport,
Danica Patrick, perhaps because she was (and still is) drop dead gorgeous,
so that series brought in a lotta consumers even though the track was a long
ways from optimal: too many railroad tracks and such.

It was a fun race however: the roar of the engines, oh my.  I knew what it
was going to be like and brought ear protection, but a prole could have made
a cool fortune by going around selling those foamy ear plugs for a coupla
bucks a pair.  I try to not ponder how tragic it was that I didn't do it.

Electric cars: granted those are way cool and fast, but I still want to see
the robocars do their thing.  We know formula One cars cost a forch, so my
notion is to take older cars worth about 5k or less, such as old Crown Vics
and Lincolns and Grand Marquis and stuff like that, cars you can afford to
risk, retrofit them with the robocar stuff and race them stock: no engine or
suspension mods, then let amateurs play. 

You could have them in classes by model and year, so the competition is
between software developers.  If someone could put together a LIDAR kit a
prole could buy for a coupla K, I would be willing to build a car and run
it.  It sounds like a hell of a lotta fun, zero risk to the racers except of
course the financial risk.  We could do solo time trials around a big open
space around cones such as out at Moffett, so you wouldn't even need to risk
your car.

spike