The Roborace will debut on the streets of Marrakech

A new series of robot racing cars is scheduled to begin in 2017.

The battery-powered prototype can reach speeds of 215 mph, Roborace reports.

The Roborace series is scheduled to begin in 2017. It will feature 10 autonomous cars that will compete on the same track.

In November, the car successfully moved on the track on the ship ePrix Marrakech Formula E. All electric series of races will be racing robots on the weekend ePrix.

The car was developed by a small team of engineers and computer scientists. “We have several types of sensors in this car,” Sergei Malygin, Roborace’s artificial intelligence developer, told CNN. “First of all there are laser measurements – based on light, so we have information about 3D objects around us.”

“In addition, we have cameras, radars, ultrasound to get information about other vehicles and base stations,” Malygin continues. “We also have accurate positioning systems and optical speed sensors.”

“To get this information inside (the machine), process it and get a valuable understanding of what’s going on around us. It’s something that requires a lot of computing power,” explains Malygin. The required data is decoded by algorithms that tell the machine where the walls are and where the other machines are.

Roborace’s engineer, Matas Simonavičius, says that each wheel works individually, which provides greater stability and safety.
“One engine drives one wheel,” Simonavičius told CNN. “So you can do torque vectoring – you can control the power of the wheels much better as it moves and the performance it gives. It’s more advanced than the usual ABS stability control.”

But is a car good without drivers?
“I think so,” says Simanavičius. “What is the biggest cause of the incident at the moment? It’s a human error.”

“So we want to bring this car into a controlled environment where you can’t harm anyone and you can prove that it works,” Simonavičius claims.

“We’re trying to change people’s view of it. So they’ll see it on the jumps and see that it’s safe and makes it all cool.”