Will we one day watch F1 without drivers ? It's not that far off with this study

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11410261/Driverless-car-beats-racing-driver-for-first-time.html

That would just be Scalextric on TV, wouldn't it?

[Edited on 13/2/2015 by philw]

Faster on a single timed lap maybe, will be years before AI will replicate the thought process needed to race wheel to wheel.

Surely the car is only driving the way its been programmed to? Speed, braking, steering input etc.
You couldn't just programme its gps route and expect it to perform like that. What would happen to that audi if it started raining? It couldn't react to the change in conditions, could it?
I guess it will have been driven round a track, and the car recording the route, speed, and steering angles (to which it can make corrections itself)
Nah, I don't see it.

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Originally posted by blakep82
Surely the car is only driving the way its been programmed to? Speed, braking, steering input etc.
You couldn't just programme its gps route and expect it to perform like that. What would happen to that audi if it started raining? It couldn't react to the change in conditions, could it?
I guess it will have been driven round a track, and the car recording the route, speed, and steering angles (to which it can make corrections itself)
Nah, I don't see it.

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The thing with F1 is that although it's the Contructors that generates all the money and the thing the team are interested in, it's the drivers that drive (hah!) the public interest.

If you took away the WDC then you'd be losing more than 50% of the interest in the sport!

James

and I thought F1 had got as boring as it could get

There won't be much difference, the drivers are like robots anyway.

Can you imagine how insane it would feel sitting in the back whilst that Audi drove itself around oulton park at race speeds or sitting in the back going along the M6 at 70 ....... White knuckle ride .... But I guess in our life times it's going to happen

I have a better idea
Why not remote control
Drivers would take more risk with less personal danger
would retain at least driver control
With driver weight gone and asociated bits they could use more battery power and smaller higher revving engines . Power could be capped but not torque that would encourage better engine development and not chasing hp

It was reported that Ferrari sent a driverless car around their test track years ago.

Yeah this will be terrain sensing and doing it's own steering and braking rather than just spitting out changes from a pre-determined route (which was done about 15 years ago). THere's no reason why AI can't be as fast or faster at this sort of thing than a human - it's a very narrow requirement field and there's really very few likely scenarios that would trouble it (Which is why commercial airliners have been capable of self launch/fly/land for about a decade but no-one trusts them to do it fully). Computers don't do stupid things like put themselves into a stall and continue to pull up. There's also no reason why it would be a single timed lap, perfectly possible it's running a genetic/learning process and fine tuning itself lap on lap by attempting variations of inputs to see how the outputs change. Sorry folks but AI is a lot more advanced than you think!

I'd probably watch it more than I do with F1 to be honest because I suspect you'll see computers doing things you REALLY don't expect because they're able to plan ahead so much better - human drivers struggle to drive AND do much more than plan the next 2 corners, add a couple of cores and the computer could be analysing positions, making millisecond calculations on pitstop timing etc. What would probably kill it is the human programming it to be too conservative so they didn't destroy a super-expensive car.

[Edited on 14/2/15 by coyoteboy]

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Scientists predict motorists could soon be transported by autonomous cars with the driving skills of Michael Schumacher

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Strange to use that reference, as unfortunately most people can drive a car quicker than Schumacher. I think it would have been better to use a current F1 driver as a reference. Rather poor judgement on the part of the journalist in my opinion.

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Originally posted by coyoteboy

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Strange to use that reference, as unfortunately most people can drive a car quicker than Schumacher. I think it would have been better to use a current F1 driver as a reference. Rather poor judgement on the part of the journalist in my opinion.

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They said his skills, not him. I don't see its worth getting overly precious about it.

[Edited on 14/2/15 by coyoteboy]

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Slightly OT maybe, but 2 of the drivers of the winning Nissan at the Bathurst 12 hours last weekend were experienced gamers that hadn't even sat in a race car until they joined the Nissan Academy 2 years ago.

Watch the last 15 Mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54fS8XRUP2I&feature=youtu.be

i would have thought that a good part of how fast you drive around a track comes down to how big your town halls are something a machine won't be worrying about would be getting injury or dying in a crash.

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Well his driving skills are not that good at the moment are they! Some of us have a bit more compassion for people who have had unfortunate accidents, especially when you know people in the same condition. A bit of thought and consideration might not have gone amiss.

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I think driverless F1 would be a vast improvement over our existing F1. There would be much lower safety restrictions and they could take away all the silly technology restrictions. Imagine F1 without regulations!!!!!!!!!!! As many tires as you want, as wide as you want, unlimited capacity engines and turbos. Think of the new innovations that the industry would develop that would eventually filter down to road cars.

Maybe the BBC would be bothered to pay for the rights to show it.

[Edited on 17/2/15 by Irony]

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Originally posted by coyoteboyYeah this will be terrain sensing and doing it's own steering and braking rather than just spitting out changes from a pre-determined route (which was done about 15 years ago).

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Think Navlab5 was the mid 90s? Time flies, I forget how old I am!

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Originally posted by coyoteboy

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Well his driving skills are not that good at the moment are they! Some of us have a bit more compassion for people who have had unfortunate accidents, especially when you know people in the same condition. A bit of thought and consideration might not have gone amiss.

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Can't see how you can take offence at it TBH, unless you're looking to take offence. Personally I prefer to gloss over these things and not look at everything so negatively.

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I'm in no way belittling your problems, just pointing out that everyone doesn't need to be careful about everything they say because always, everywhere, there's someone who may take offence at pretty much anything you say whether you meant it or not. The points were valid, are you suggesting ever mentioning Senna's skills from now on would be wrong also, because people have died since him too and someone might take offence? Not trying to be mean here, but there needs to be some perspective.

Good luck with your uncle, can't be fun.