You may not be aware that history was made last weekend, but apparently quite a few techno-geeks did: It was the inaugural event of the Abu Dhabi Auto

The Autonomous Racing League Is a Reality. Do You Care?

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2024-04-30 00:30:04

You may not be aware that history was made last weekend, but apparently quite a few techno-geeks did: It was the inaugural event of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League at the Yas Marina road course, with eight driverless formula cars from around the world competing, or trying to, as the event revealed that autonomous racing isn’t quite ready for prime time.

That said, the Autonomous Racing League claims that 10,000 spectators watched the event in person, while over 600,000 watched it online. Since the broadcast was more than three hours long, and the actual race was just eight laps among four cars, with two that actually finished, it took some stamina to watch the whole show.

That broadcast was decidedly of the rah-rah variety, including contributions from American broadcaster Amanda Busick, absent from her usual role as pit reporter for the NHRA drag racing. It was a “stupendous weekend!” for the Autonomous Racing League’s inaugural event, Busick posted on her Instagram account. “Hard to verbalize how professionally satisfying this experience was.”

Competing were modified versions of the Dallara Super Formula SF23 car, which is described in the press release as being “the fastest open-wheel race car in the world after Formula 1,” which is probably surprising to IndyCar given these SF23s are powered by a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine.