MWC: First driverless electric race car takes stage

Roborace this week revealed the world’s first driverless electric racing car, The Robocar, live on stage at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The futuristic car was unveiled on stage by Denis Sverdlov, Roborace CEO alongside Daniel Simon, Roborace Chief Design Officer. They were delivering a keynote address on the evolution of autonomous vehicles, showing how Roborace is a platform for the world’s best engineers to advance the software that will change our roads for the better.

“This is a huge moment for Roborace as we share the Robocar with the world and take another big step in advancing driverless electric technology,” said Sverdlov. “It was very important for us that we created an emotional connection to driverless cars and bring humans and robots closer together to define our future. The progress with Devbot (the development version of Robocar) on track and building the Robocar in less than a year has been extraordinary and we cannot wait to continue the journey of learning with the Robocar.”

Daniel Simon is the automotive futurist who creates vehicles for Hollywood sci-fi movies ,including Tron Legacy and Oblivion. Robocar weighs 975kg and measures 4.8m long and 2m wide. It has 4 motors 300kW each, 540kW battery, is predominantly made of carbon fibre and will be capable of speeds over 320kph. The car uses a number of technologies to drive itself including 5 lidars, 2 radars, 18 ultrasonic sensors, 2 optical speed sensors, 6 artificial intelligence (AI) cameras, and GNSS positioning. It is powered by Nvidia’s Drive PX2 brain, capable of up to 24 trillion AI operations per second, to be programmed by the teams’ software engineers using complex algorithms.

“Roborace opens a new dimension where motorsport as we know it meets the unstoppable rise of artificial intelligence,” said Shimon. “While pushing the boundaries of engineering, we styled every single part of the Robocar. We take special pride in revealing a functional machine that stays true to the initial concept shared, a rarity in automotive design and a testament of our determination. It’s a great feeling to set this free.”

Roborace provides an open AI platform with fixed hardware for companies to develop their own driverless software and push the limits in an extreme and safe environment. The series is designed to be a competition of intelligence, so all teams will use the same Robocar. By ensuring the hardware is consistent, all efforts will be focussed on advancing the software.

The Robocar provides a platform for high profile brands to play a role in redefining tomorrow’s cities through technology. The launch car’s livery includes the logos of Lego, Visa, DHL, Allianz, Nvidia, Charge and Michelin.

The ‘brain’ of the Robocar, the NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2, uses AI to tackle the complexities inherent in autonomous driving. It utilises deep learning for 360-degree situational awareness around the car, to determine precisely where the car is and to compute a safe, efficient trajectory.

“Roborace and NVIDIA today push the boundary to accelerate the development of deep learning systems for safer passenger and commercial vehicles,” said Rob Csongor, Vice-President & GM of automotive for NVIDIA.

Roborace has been performing demonstrations with its more functional looking development cars, known as Devbots. In their last outing, the cars performed a world first as Roborace became the first company to put two driverless cars on display simultaneously on a custom-built city street track at Formula E’s ePrix in Buenos Aires. Roborace will continue to use DevBots for demonstrations and testing, introducing the Robocar into public displays during 2017 with two Robocars taking to the track together later this year.

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