BBC_Top_Gear_South_Africa_June_2017

“ You could even
have robot ‘deer’
running across
the racing line”
F1 is back for 2017 and it has all the
ingredients of a fantastic season. An angry
Lewis Hamilton eager to reclaim “his” title, a
competitive Ferrari and new cars designed to
close up the field. On paper, I should be excited,
but the truth is, I’m steeling myself for yet
another snoozefest of a season.
As a racing fan, I could turn my attention to
Moto GP or some form of rallying, but my eye’s
been caught by driverless racing. A series known as Roborace is
promising to deliver autonomous racing cars that slug it out in a
driverless racing competition. That’s right, machine vs machine – with
no humans getting in the way.
The latest prototype car looks fantastic. I’d go as far as saying that
although the lack of a cockpit is visually jarring, it’s among the most
beautiful automotive creations I’ve ever seen. It’s also up there with the
cleverest. These things are teeming with sensors – radar, lidar,
ultrasonics, accelerometers and cameras – designed to recognise the
track, other racers and figure out its own movements.
The goal is to have up to 20 autonomous Robocars waging driverless
war on circuits around the globe, with races being the support act to
Formula E races. Many petrolheads will, of course, call me an idiot. If
you’re in this camp, you’ll be pleased to know that both my esteemed
colleagues on TopGear television have expressed this sentiment, but I
think Roborace has huge potential.
Without humans getting in the way, the cars will be able to travel
faster, take greater risks, and engage in potentially more exciting racing.
Just imagine: circuits that no longer feature silly chicanes that slow
down drivers for their own safety. You could rip up the rulebook and
allow cars to make multiple moves while defending a position. Or giant
loop-the-loops on track. You could even introduce random obstacles,
such as robot “deer” running across the racing line, or weapons.
And look, if you really want humans involved somehow, then
why not force teams to strap their best engineer to the body of
their car with a MacBook and ask them to make coding
adjustments during a race – literally on the fly.
That last one’s a bit of a stretch, but let’s face facts – F1 drivers
may as well be hangers-on anyway. It isn’t about Fernando vs
Lewis, or Verstappen vs Vettel. It’s rarely even about teammate vs
teammate, as the teams are usually too scared to let their own
drivers race. It’s difficult even, to admire individual driver skill as
they’re usually either nursing their cars home, or driving according to
instructions from their engineers.
Even if Roboracing is terrible, it probably won’t be any worse than F1
is currently. Plus, it will have the added benefit of improving driverless
car technology for road-going cars. One of the purposes of the series is
for engineers to gather data of how autonomous cars behave on the
limit, with all manner of chaos kicking off around them. The sooner we
let driverless cars off the leash in a safe environment, the safer we’ll be
when the tech becomes mainstream.
Of course, I’m not proposing we consign F1 to the scrapheap. It’s
still a great spectacle. Race starts are a personal highlight, as is the
glorious mid-race period after the first pit stop and before the final 10
laps, where I can have a nap.
And yes, drivers still have a huge part to play in motorsport. Imagine
if the likes of Senna, Hamilton and Schumacher never got the chance to
ply their trade – the world would be a worse place. But I for one want to
think we should give the robots a chance, too. Gorgeous 300km/h cars
doing no-holds-barred track battle?
Through loops? While dodging
kamikaze robotic deer? Surely we
all want to see that happen?
30 JUNE 2017