A circuit racing formula, based on production cars with limited modifications to increase roadholding, performance etc.

Each team can enter a vehicle in one of three classes. These are (i) Onboard human driver, (ii) Remote human driver, (iii) Fully autonomous vehicle.

All vehicles have improved crashworthiness appropriate to a human driver. The mass of equipment (or ballast) installed in category (ii) and (iii) vehicles must be 75Kg +/- 5 Kg, so that there is no overall mass advantage, and the mass must be as far as possible be distributed to mimic a human driver.

Class (ii) vehicles are effectively drones, with all the control a human would have, but operated remotely by a human.

Class (iii) vehicles can telemeter back information, but commands sent from the team are strictly limited, along the lines of "start race", "controlled stop", "emergency stop", "end race", "kill engine and discharge extinguishers".

It is likely that in the early days, the onboard humans will win a lot of the time, followed by the RPVs. But as time goes on, the fully autonomous vehicles should improve their placings.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 25 2014

Leguna Seca http://m.autoblog.c...mous-track-trainer/
Their fastest lap. [RayfordSteele, Nov 27 2014]

Fpv long range race rc car 90kmh HPI Blizt full aluminium https://www.youtube...watch?v=OFkIjTP6Mgw
I like the idea of remote RC racing in First Person View [mofosyne, Nov 29 2014]

Doing all we can to keep humans in the game Range_2fSpeed-Diffe...de_20View_20Mirrors
[normzone, Nov 29 2014]

Oh, c'mon everyone knows that F1 is just load of radio-controlled cars with a helmet epoxied onto it.

The cars aren't even full sized, the race audience are tricked by clever optics and a heavy dose of Jimson weed in the water supply..

Looking at the wikipedia of that stuff, it also played some small part in the Bacon Rebellion in some colony somewhere...
-- not_morrison_rm, Nov 26 2014


I was inspired to try and find out to what extent F1 was automated/pit controlled. It's not easy. I know that the more advanced traction controls effectively turned the throttle into an on-off switch, the better braking systems did the same with the other pedal. I also remember that in the late Mansell-Williams era that the gear changes were out of the driver's control, can't find a source though. FWIW I think it'd be pretty easy to control an F1 car from the Pits.
-- bs0u0155, Nov 26 2014


// in the early days, the onboard humans will win a lot of the time, followed by the RPVs//

I disagree. I am pretty sure that within the defined environment of a track, an autonomous car could win today. A computer can know in a microsecond whether there's enough room and speed to squeeze through on a corner, or can make gear changes at the precise RPM needed to get the maximum performance out of the engine on a straight.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 27 2014


Baked by BMW and Audi.
-- RayfordSteele, Nov 27 2014


// I am pretty sure that within the defined environment of a track, an autonomous car could win today. //

That might be so if the only factors were the tangible physical ones of vehicle performance and surface conditions. But add in the fact that there are human drivers on the circuit, who behave in odd and unpredictable ways, and the challenge becomes greater when the system is chaotic rather than stochastic.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 28 2014


// add in the fact that there are human drivers on the circuit// Not a problem. Humans also have to react to other unpredictable humans. A computer can tell, within a millisecond instead of within 100msec, that another car is cutting in, or accelerating, or braking.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 29 2014


When they are all autonomous cars, isn't the race over before it begins?
-- RickRantilla, Nov 29 2014



random, halfbakery