Roborace has published a series of images showing
the first trio of racing prototypes it has built for its inaugural racing
season. The images, shared on Twitter, show the three cars wearing colorful
racing liveries and looking absolutely fantastic.
Dubbed the DevBot 2.0, the prototypes take
inspiration from LMP race cars and, unlike the Robocar, feature a cockpit. That
because, while Roborace originally intended on launching a fully-autonomous
racing series to support the Formula E calendar with its driverless Robocar,
technical challenges have put those plans on hold.
So, for now, the series will be run in the DevBot
2.0. The program calls for the vehicles to be piloted by a human driver for the
first half of each race before the self-driving systems take over for the
second half. Details about the racing calendar remain limited, but Roborace does
plan on bringing its all-electric prototypes to circuits in Spain, Italy, the
UK, Hungary and the United States. The first event will allegedly kick off
behind closed doors this Monday in Spain.
Speaking about the championship last year, Roborace
boss and 2016/2017 Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi said the first season
would consist of less than 10 cars raced by a handful of teams. Roborace’s plans for autonomous
vehicle racing may be way behind schedule, but the company is continuing to
push forward. In fact, it foresees its championship being released in full in
2021 with new cars, which will bring together the best aspects of the DevBot
2.0 and the Robocar.
