Next year Formula E will launch autonomous car racing

With driverless cars the craze these days, it’s no wonder why Formula E and Kinetik teamed up to launch a race series for autonomous electric cars.

The new championship race, called Roborace, will take place during the 2016-2017 season and is intended to provide a competitive platform for the different types of autonomous driving technologies being developed by major auto and tech companies and universities.

Next season, ROBORACE will take place prior to each Formula E race, using the same circuits in major cities across the world. It will include 10 teams, each with two driverless cars, that will compete in one-hour races over the full championship season.

While each team will have the same car,  the real competition springs from using real-time computing algorithms and AI technologies.

“We passionately believe that, in the future, all of the world’s vehicles will be assisted by AI and powered by electricity, thus improving the environment and road safety. “Roborace… is a global platform to show that robotic technologies and AI can co-exist with us in real life,” said Denis Sverdlov, Founder of Kinetik and Roborace.

The Roborace competition aims to demonstrate how the future of automotive and IT can works in extreme conditions, such as high-speed racing.

One of the race teams will even be orchestrated as a crowd-sourced community team that’s open to software and technology experts all over the world.

More details and announcements about the teams and technologies to be used will be made early next year.

Story via Formula E.