Roborace was planning on launching its autonomous
racing series a couple of years ago and, despite the delays, the company
recently found the time to team up with Hot Wheels to bring the Robocar to
life, albeit in miniature form.
Work on the Robocar racing series commenced at the
start of 2016 with the intention of a fully-autonomous racing championship
being launched the following year to support the Formula E Championship.
However, the company behind the Robocar and the long-promised racing series,
Roborace, still continues to test its autonomous prototypes.
Much like the real thing, the Robocar created in
collaboration with Hot Wheels looks like something straight out of a science
fiction miovie. Not only it lack a passenger cell, the curious shape of the
racer makes it almost look like a four-legged insect that rolls around on
wheels.
Late last year, Roborace announced a series of
important alterations to its series. Instead of racing its all-autonomous
vehicles, the company led by 2016/2017 Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi will
race the DevBot 2.0 during its inaugural season this year.
The vehicle, pictured below, takes design
inspiration from prototype racers and features a cockpit. Current plans call
for a human driver to pilot the vehicle for the first half of each race and the
self-driving systems to take over during the second half. Roborace intends on launching its
new category in earnest in 2021 with vehicles which bring together the best
elements of the DevBot 2.0 and the cockpit-less Robocar.
