‘Roborace’ car makes street track debut in Marrakech
Story highlights
Driverless electrical racer finishes effective track test in Marrakech, Morocco
Planned Roborace series will see self-governing vehicles contend at Solution E ePrix weekends
(CNN) —
It is a cars and truck kitted out with innovation its designers boldly anticipate will change our cities and alter the method we live.
The self-governing “DevBot #1” took a huge leap forward in Morocco just recently, making its launching on a street track at the Formula E Marrakech ePrix.
The battery-powered model is being evaluated for Roborace – a proposed race series where driverless vehicles will contend on short-lived city circuits.
“It’s the first time we’ve run the Devbot in driverless mode on a Formula E track in the middle of a city street,” Roborace’s Justin Cooke informed CNN.
“It’s so exciting for the team who put hours and hours of work in. These guys were up to 1-2 a.m. in the morning developing a technology that no one else in the world is able to do at this speed and in these complicated environments.”
Read: Electric race vehicle showcases driverless future
Utilizing a range of sensing units – consisting of GPS, radar and ultrasonics – allied to advanced computer system programs, the vehicle finds out how to browse a track at speed preventing all challenges.
“What we are doing is at the forefront of technology right now,” states Cooke, who is likewise CMO of Kinetik – an investment firm established by Russian business owner Denis Sverdlov which is offering sponsorship for the task.
“There are two or three kinds of space races, if you will – some people are going to Mars, we’re developing robotic cars and I think it’s probably one of the most, if not the most exciting space in the world right now.”
After the effective 30-minute test in Marrakech – this year’s host city for the United Nations environment modification conference (COP22) – Cooke state the business will next attempt racing 2 vehicles together on track with the ultimate goal of having up to 10 vehicles contending at every Formula E ePrix weekend.
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
A brand-new robotic race vehicle series is set to get underway in 2017.
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Roborace Ltd.
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
The prepared “Roborace” series is arranged to be objected to throughout Formula E champion weekends. Organizers have actually commissioned Daniel Simon — well-known for his work on motion pictures like “Tron: Legacy” — to develop the race vehicle.
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Daniel Simon
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
In the meantime, this model, called the DevBot #1, is trialing the self-governing innovation.
View a video of it in action here
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Matt Knight/CNN
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
The battery-powered model can reach speeds of 215 miles per hour (350 kph), according to Roborace.
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Matt Knight/CNN
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
The “Roborace” series is arranged to begin in 2017 and will see 10 self-governing vehicles all contending on the very same track.
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Roborace Ltd.
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
The vehicle effectively browsed the track at Solution E’s Marrakech ePrix in November. The all-electric race series will host robotic races throughout ePrix weekends.
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Matt Knight/CNN
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
The vehicle has actually been established by a little group of engineers and computer system researchers. “With this car we have several kinds of sensors,” Sergey Malygin, Roborace’s Expert system designer, informed CNN. “First of all there are lasers measurements — light-based, so we have information about the 3D objects around us.”
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Matt Knight/CNN
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
“Also we have cameras, radars, ultrasonics to get the information about other vehicles and base stations,” Malygin continues. “We also have precise positioning systems and optical speed sensors.”
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Matt Knight/CNN
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
“To get this information inside (the car), process it and get a valuable understanding of what is happening around us that’s something that needs a lot of computing power,” Malygin discusses. The raw information is then figured out by algorithms which informs the vehicle where the walls are and where other vehicles are on the roadway.
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Matt Knight/CNN
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
Roborace engineer, Matas Simonavicius, states each wheel is separately powered, offering more stability and security.
“One motor drives one wheel,” Simonavicius informed CNN. “This way you can do torque vectoring — you can control the power to wheels much better, how it drives and the performance it gives out. It’s more advanced than the conventional stability control ABS.”
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Matt Knight/CNN
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
However are driverless vehicles an excellent concept?
“I think, yes,” Simonavicius states. “What’s the biggest cause of accidents at the moment? It’s human error.”
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Matt Knight/CNN
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
“That’s why we want to bring this car into a controlled environment where you cannot hurt any people and you can prove that it works,” Simonavicius argues.
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Matt Knight/CNN
Photos: Self-governing vehicle transformation
“We’re trying to change people’s perspective of it. So they will see it at races and see it’s safe and does all these cool things.”
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Roborace Ltd
“To be here at COP22 when we are celebrating an electric future, a driverless future – it’s the perfect time for Roborace,” Cooke enthuses.
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“More than anything we want people to be excited about the technology because it’s going to change our lives, it’s going to transform our cities.”
Jobber Wiki author Frank Long contributed to this report.