Robo copped

Will autonomous motor racing bring its own set of environmental concerns?

Global warming and the contribution that petrol and diesel-powered vehicles make to this are hot topics. The huge part that agricultural, industrial, transport and marine diesels play in this seems to be conveniently overlooked in favour of the political game of targeting cars. I could devote the whole of this column to the fallacies that surround the headlong rush for all-electric, but this is not what Racecar Engineering is about. Instead, I want to highlight one of the contradictory automotive avenues in which motor racing appears set to play a part.

Roborace is being touted as a great proving ground, technically and for reasons of perception, for self-driving cars. I fail to see, aside from those who are addicted to computer gaming, the point in this driver-less racing car concept – it appears to be contrary to the whole ethos of motor racing, in which machine and man/woman together prove their capabilities and assume risks. How can developing the best algorithms replicate the adrenaline shot of taking a fast corner with throttle flat to the bulkhead, teetering on the edge of adhesion, when your natural senses are telling you to lift?

However, each to his, or her, own. It is certainly true that the world’s major automotive manufacturers are spending many billions of pounds in developing autonomous vehicles, and Roborace could – perhaps – assist. However, carmakers following this latest automotive avenue appear sheep-like, because for a start it’s for a market that isn’t yet proven to exist, certainly on the scale that will show a solid return on these vast investments.

Emission impossible