Roborace race car concept ditches the driver ~ station of gear

All electric racer may preview the standardised car design used in the Roborace autonomous car race series

2016-03-31 10:30

Notice something missing from this racing car? That’s right, this concept drawing has no cockpit or driver's seat – because it doesn’t need one. It’s the first concept we’ve seen for Roborace, an autonomous race series where the cars will be standardised and teams will compete by writing different software to control their vehicles.

The concept shown here is definitely a totally different proposition to the usual Formula 1 or Formula E car – dispensing with exposed wheels in favour of almost completely enclosed tyres front and rear. It’s totally streamlined though, and not needing air intakes or open cockpits for the driver has left an incredibly smooth bodyshell, with the centre portion almost looking like an aeroplane fuselage.

• Formula 1: season preview 2016

The concept was designed by Daniel Simon, known for the livery of the HRT Formula 1 car from the 2011 season – though he’s also known for working on the futuristic light-up cars in the Tron movies.

• Roborace Autonomous race series announced

Roborace is set to begin late this year, as a supplement to the third season of the regular Formula E races. The focus is solely on team’s ability to program autonomous driving software into the vehicles – and as such, all cars will be electric and identical. The lack of a driver means the cars will have plenty of space for more batteries – eliminating the current need for a swap batteries halfway through, as in Formula E.

10 teams are set to compete in Roborace, with one being crowdsourced to allow individual developers to make their mark on the championship. It’s not yet known if this concept rendering is anything like what the Roborace cars are planned to look like, but we’ll find out if the speculation is accurate later in the year.

Would you watch Roborace if the cars looked like this? Let us know in the comments below...

Tom Wiltshire

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