Roborace Racing Series Is For Cars With No Drivers

With autonomous cars, becoming more and more prevalent as the years go by it's no surprise that someone wants to see these driverless cars race. A racing series called Roborace will do just that when it debuts late in 2016 or early next year. The cars used in the series are electric, custom made, and very cool looking. They have four wheels and are covered with sensors and antennas.

If the Roborace cars look like something out of Tron, there is good reason for that. The racing series hired Daniel Simon to design the cars, the same man who designed the light cycles in Tron: Legacy. Considering how rare it is for concept cars like we see in the renderings here actually make it to production it's natural to wonder if the actual racing cars to look like this.

Simon says that he worked with racing engineers and aerodynamics experts on his design to make the cars beautiful and functional. That seems to indicate that the actual racing cars will look like this. With no driver and lots of surface area, there are plenty of spots where advertiser names can be plastered on.

Other than offering up the rendering of the car little other information is offered, it's unclear what will power them. The cars are tipped to go as fast as 186mph and to have active aero bits. Roborace "shows" (presumably demonstrations) are expected to take place during the 2016/2017 Formula E season. Eventually the developers of Roborace want to see hour-long events like those that Formula E holds. Important tidbits that we don't know include just how many teams will participate in the series and why the races are being called "shows."

SOURCE: TheVerge