The Goodwood Festival of Speed of kicks
off on July 12th and Roborace will become the first company to attempt to run 1.86 km long hillclimb using a fully autonomous vehicle. The
attempt will be made by the company’s Robocar which uses a variety of sensors
to give the model a 360-degree view of its surrounding. While autonomous
driving technology is becoming more common, Goodwood represents a unique
challenge as the car will have to avoid unique obstacles such as hay bales while
also dealing with spotty GPS reception.
The Robocar features four electric
motors which each produce 181 hp. This gives the car a
combined maximum output in excess of 500 hp. Of course,
performance is only part of the story as the Robocar is equipped with LiDAR,
radar and ultrasonic sensors as well as cameras and a GPS system. All this
information is fed into a high-tech computer, with an AI driver algorithm,
which enables the car to drive itself.
While it will be interesting to see if
the car can successfully navigate the hillclimb, fans can take part in a fully
immersive VR experience at the Roborace booth. The booth will be located inside
the Future Lab which focuses on autonomous transportation, robotics, personal
flight and space exploration.
