(upbeat rock music)
- [Narrator] By now,
the world is well aware
that self-driving cars are getting closer
to becoming a reality.
However, not everyone has heard
about self-driving race cars.
The up-and-coming motor
sport known as autonomous
racing is currently being led by Roborace,
a series that features all-electric
self-driving race cars.
The competition is designed
to provide each race team
with identical cars,
featuring the same powertrain
and chassis, as well as
the same basic self-driving
software; however, the teams
are responsible for customizing
and improving the algorithms
that ultimately control
the cars and allow them
to navigate multiple
racetracks on their own.
While fans of other racing series fawn
over world-class drivers,
in Roborace it's programmers
who are the real stars.
With the inaugural season now underway,
we caught up with Roborace's
chief strategy officer,
Bryn Balcombe, to get the
inside scoop on everything
racing fans need to know about the company
and this unique new motor sport.
- Roborace is a completely
new type of motor sport
that we've been developing
for the last 2 1/2 years,
focusing on the mega-trends
that are happening
in the automotive industry,
so electric, connected,
and autonomous technologies.
How does motor sport
play a role in developing
that for the future,
showcasing the technology,
and building trust with the public.
So this year, we're running
something called Season Alpha,
and Season Alpha is our experimental year,
where we're looking at
lots of different formats,
lots of different types of competition.
The main thing is to drive the
advancement in the software.
That's what we're focused on this year.
So anything that we
find creates competition
between the teams and moves
that software development
further forward, that's
what we're focused on.
- [Narrator] Roborace
currently features two vehicles
in its fleet: the Robocar, and DevBot,
the company's development
robot that serves as a platform
for testing new technology and software.
Unlike Robocar, though, DevBot has room
for a driver as well.
- We're focused now on DevBot
and using that as the
development platform,
but the target is to be
able to take that software
and use it in Robocar.
We're running with DevBot
2.0 in Season Alpha,
which gives us the
opportunity to use humans
within those competition formats.
In previous years where we've done human
versus machine competitions,
some that we're looking
at this year experiment
with having the human
in for part of the race
and AI for the second part,
some are pure AI races only.
So when we've done human
versus machine competitions,
it's been really interesting,
number one, to see the human's reaction,
that they want to beat the robot.
There's that competitive element there.
And then, number two, from the AI teams,
who really want to get as close to
and then eventually
beat the human drivers.
So they're probably about
5-10% away at the moment,
before we get to the human
level of performance.
- [Narrator] So what kind of
tech allows these impressive
machines to drive on their own?
- So we've got exactly
the same types of sensors
and computer that you'll find
in the autonomous-vehicle
industry that's being
developed by companies
such as Waymo, for example.
So we're running lidar, radar,
machine-vision cameras, sonar.
We have an accurate GPS inertial system
that's so accurate you could
do missile guidance with it.
So we have export restrictions
on those products,
some of those products.
But yeah, it's exactly the same
as you would use on the road.
And that's really key for
us is that the technology
that's developed in competition
here at our racetrack
transfers to that road industry.
I think it's really interesting:
Roborace itself is actually
a media and entertainment business.
That's what our focus is.
We've chosen an incredibly
hard genre of media
and entertainment to get
into and had to design
our own vehicles, but it's
really that that's where
we're gonna see the
biggest changes coming.
Yes, these vehicles are amazing,
but what we can do with that for media
and entertainment experiences
will blow people's minds.
(upbeat music)
