Autonomous motorsports are supposedly on the horizon. But the whole concept seems puzzling. By removing the drivers, the individuals that make the sport exciting, who would we worship and envy in equal measure?
Motorsport is an exhilarating display of treading the fine line between victory and disaster. The danger is part of the sport, but with driverless autonomous vehicles, there is no longer an inherent risk.
An argument could be made that motorsport is not about the drivers, but it is instead about the technology. Car manufacturers are always keen to use racing as a testing ground for technology that eventually trickles down into their road cars.
Perhaps autonomous motorsport is instead about evoking competitive engineering and prowess over the talents of fleshy, fallible drivers.
Autonomous vehicles remain in their infancy and as such, are far from perfect. In the initial stages of autonomous racing, there would be some smug amusement to be gained from the cars making basic errors, such as missing corner apexes by metres instead of millimetres and crashing frequently.
But, as long as clever people have access to computers, the nature of machine learning and artificial intelligence will see autonomous racers hitting lap after lap perfectly, with ruthless efficiency, and the best efforts of human drivers will become mere scribbles in sporting almanacs.
No sane racing team would consider engineering in ‘faults’ or ‘drama’ into their car’s software in order to make racing more interesting, especially not at the risk of losing races to more cutthroat teams. Thus, the competitive nature and drama of motorsport is at risk of being removed from the sport entirely.
Therefore, there may only be a few viable avenues for autonomous motorsports. Firstly, as a betting sport, like greyhound or horse racing. A sport where the crowds’ interest starts and ends, with the money that can be made.
Secondly, whoever is behind autonomous racing needs to embrace the fact that considerations must be given to breakable humans anymore.
It is often said that the IndyCar series does not race at Daytona, as the banked corners are so steep that drivers risk blacking-out from the G-forces exerted upon them.
Autonomous racing cars would have no such worries. Perhaps, they would be engineered to race at 400mph or have enough downforce to be able to drive on the ceiling, or on circuits with loop-the-loops and other extreme features. Maybe autonomous race cars would instead be programmed to body-slam one another, since they would not have to worry about human casualties.
Realistically, no team is going to invest huge sums of money to intentionally destroy a highly sophisticated racing machine, in some bizarre automotive blood sport. As such, autonomous racing may perhaps have to resort to gimmicks to make racing interesting, to make up for the lack of human drama that captivates us to begin with.
Perhaps the Romans had it best. Did they ever celebrate successful chariot designs in their races on the Circus Maximus? The Roman crowds cheered for the charioteers – those with skin in the game, and the same maxim still stands today: it’s the competitors, and their skill, that draws us to motorsport.
Kerbside 