Self-Driving Race Cars Take Shape

The organizers of the new Roborace circuit for  autonomous vehicles, which is due to start later this year, have released photos of the driverless electric cars.

The futuristic Roboracers were designed by Daniel Simon, who also created the vehicles for the 2010 sci-fi cult movie Tron: Legacy. Simon also was a senior designer for Volkswagen AG’s Bugatti supercar unit and has worked with several F1 teams.

The cars are essentially the same size as Formula E cars, but they don’t have a driver cockpit. This allows more space for larger batteries that don’t have to be recharged mid-way through a race as is the case with Formula E cars.

To maintain a clean, uncluttered look, Simon says, the car's low-slung floor is used as the main generator of aerodynamic downforce, with large air tunnels on either side of the central fuselage. New active body parts that are “more organic and seamless” than current devices are being developed.

Competing teams will be given identical vehicles to outfit with their own autonomous driving algorithms and software programs. The one-hour races will be held two hours ahead of and on the same street courses as Formula E events.

The organizers hope to have 10 teams—including one crowd-sourced entrant—fielding two cars each for the inaugural season.