Driverless race cars are here
And they're called Robocars
Get ready for "a new breed of motorsport," said Nick Summers at Engadget. The Robocar, unveiled at last month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, is a fully electric, sensor-loaded self-driving race car that can top 200 mph.
It's the creation of London-based startup Roborace, which hopes to organize the world's first driverless racing series. The heroes of the contest will be the programmers, "concocting the smartest and most competitive AI drivers." Roborace hopes the event will generate technological advances that can be applied to road vehicles. If a driverless car can avoid other robots racing at 200 mph, the thinking goes, "it stands a pretty good chance on the streets." Robocar's "sleek, futuristic look" comes straight from Hollywood. Roborace's chief designer, Daniel Simon, has created vehicle concepts for science fiction movies like 2010's Tron: Legacy and 2012's Prometheus.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Tuck in to British fusion cuisine
The Week Recommends The trend for combining classics from two food cultures can result in dishes that are doubly delicious
By The Week UK Published
-
Labour and nuclear weapons: a turbulent ideological history
The Explainer From the 1940s to Keir Starmer, the party leadership has zigzagged in and out of love with the bomb
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
'Trump trial transcends sex, money and politics'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published