
Driverless Roborace car crashes at speed in Buenos Aires - ZeljkoS
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39027477
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fenwick67
If there's no crashing, what would be the point of watching?

Seriously, nothing would be more boring than watching 10 cars all driving
perfectly in a line. The opportunity for aggressiveness, risk-taking and
crashes without human lives ending is what makes this exciting.

~~~
ericcumbee
I think that is where the different Autonomous systems come into play. Each
one may take a slightly different approach to each decision point.

It would be like the difference between Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish in
endurance racing. Both very fast drivers... McNish is much more aggressive,
who took more risks and got away with them more often than not verses Capello
who was much more conservative.

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stretchwithme
This is exactly the sort of thing we need to test the limits of robotic
vehicles. Nothing spurs innovation like intense competition.

Also think it would be cool if the cars could get points for touching other
cars (without crashing, of course) or faking them out with optical
distractions or anything else.

Or unleash more obstacles that cars have to avoid or lose points. Fake babies
crawling on to the track and such.

~~~
koolba
Add actual weapons fired from car to car and you've got something that I'd pay
money to watch.

So pretty much the movie Death Race but with self driving cars.

~~~
tradersam
Might as well go full Full Auto 2 and let people duke it out with them.

I'd pay money to watch that.

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Fricken
I've been tracking this Roborace thing and they're spending a lot of money on
bullshit. It's all sizzle and no steak. They have some very slickly produced
videos about the passion and drama of racing robots and they're all
hilariously anti-climactic.

Methinks the talent shortage in the autonomous driving space is severe enough
that anyone capable of developing an (exciting) autonomous race car has more
important things to do.

~~~
beat
Depends on where their funding is coming from, and what the goals are. If
they're being funded by big corporations as both research and PR, then it's
not just junk. They're doing good work.

~~~
sand500
Is doing this on a track too ideal? Would be cool if this was done in super
extreme conditions. That R&D would definitely help commercial autonomous cars.

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pasta
I searched Youtube but could not find the shortest clip of the event.

Are there any?

~~~
djaychela
BBC says they will publish it on Friday on YouTube.

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MegaButts
I was terrified when I saw the picture of the dog before I read the caption.

~~~
futuravenir
The caption is downright hilarious because of just how dry it is.

"The winning Devbot 1 managed to avoid running over a dog"

~~~
0xfeba
I thought so too.

"Devbot 2, on the other hand..."

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YSFEJ4SWJUVU6
I'd like to know more specifics on how the cars communicate with each other –
is the event more a choreographed show than an actual race?

I follow motor sports to an extent, but don't feel too enthused about watching
computers race each other (no matter if on track, or virtually), but it would
further diminish the “racing” part of it if the machines actually told each
other what they were up to next. A more humane way of driving might be more
spectacular.

~~~
Swizec
Hopefully it's on te level of what drivers already do. If you see someone is
taking you on the inside, you don't close them off in a way to deliberately
cause a crash. Basic politeness.

If they communicate so it's all a choreographed dance, then that's stupid and
the sport is nigh unwatchable.

There's a reason "best crashes" videos are a whole genre on Youtube. The
danger makes motosport interesting.

~~~
goatforce5
> you don't close them off in a way to deliberately cause a crash. Basic
> politeness.

Typically the rules of racing will say you don't block faster cars or
deliberately drive dangerously, etc. e.g. Forumla 1 says:

[https://www.formula1.com/en/championship/inside-f1/rules-
reg...](https://www.formula1.com/en/championship/inside-f1/rules-
regs/Licenses_driving_protocol_and_penalties.html)

But yes, this Roborace thing seems pointless unless the cars are made by
different teams and have different software, etc.

~~~
caconym_
Apparently that's how it's going to work:
[https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/08/meet-devbot-a-self-
driv...](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/08/meet-devbot-a-self-driving-
electric-racing-car/)

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ChuckMcM
One of the things you could do with Chessmaster was have it play itself and
watch, this turned out to be pretty boring. I suspect that having robot cars
race would be similarly boring for everyone except the engineers who were
enjoying the technical challenges being overcome.

~~~
dkokelley
Perhaps it would be boring if all cars are running the same basic strategy. If
competing teams get to tune their strategies and counter-strategies I can see
this being quite popular. After all, there might be bigger crashes.

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beat
This makes me wonder about the possibilities of AI-based racing in the future.
Can we make a truly competitive sport of it? Grand Prix style auto racing is a
_really_ complex thing, with the most sophisticated cars in the world, and a
lot of judgment calls by the team as well as the drivers. Speeds are limited
by human reflexes and safety. Theoretically, we could get even faster, more
difficult racing with AI. But will AI flatten the curve to where it becomes
uninteresting?

~~~
caconym_
AIs are still limited by the capabilities of the hardware, and there are a
huge number of variables to deal with. If the teams are properly incentivized
to win even if it means occasionally having a crash because the car was
operating on the bleeding edge, I think it should stay interesting.

I think the bigger question is whether it's actually fun to watch cars racing
without humans in them, no matter how exciting the racing is otherwise.

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vmorgulis
"DevBot in Driverless mode — scanning the Donington Park circuit in England"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrfCQ7qwPh8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrfCQ7qwPh8)

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rasz_pl
>at speed

at _low_ speed, no idea why they run at what looks like 1/2 power of human
counterparts

