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Roborace to showcase new DevBot 2.0 at Goodwood Festival of Speed

24 June 2019

Roborace will be returning to the Festival of Speed at Goodwood House to showcase its new DevBot 2.0 self-driving vehicle for the first time in public in the UK.

DevBots differ from the original Robocar as they have the capacity to be driven by either a human driver or a robot driver, giving greater flexibility for experimenting with different racing formats.

It is envisaged that these formats will include human and robot teams in the future, with part of the race being driven by a human driver before they hand over to their artificial intelligent (A.I.) counterpart to finish the race.

The hillclimb presents a unique challenge for self-driving software compared to a standard racing circuit as there is no GPS coverage on the hill. The cars must rely on other sensors to guide them along the length of the course. This is coupled with the variety of obstacles the car must detect that are not usually encountered on a race track, such as flint walls, hay bales and trees lining the route.

Roborace is currently in the middle of its first prototype season – Season Alpha – which has seen action in both Spain and Italy before the cars headed back to the UK to take part in the Festival of Speed.

“The Festival of Speed at Goodwood is one of the stand-out events for Roborace to be involved with as our mission is to excite and engage the public with these new technologies that will one day be on our roads,” said Lucas Di Grassi, Roborace CEO.

“By bringing our new DevBot 2.0 vehicles to the Festival of Speed this year we are making self-driving cars cool and fun for all generations of people attending the event and watching around the world.  If we want people to adopt these new technologies in the future it is important that we showcase that they are safe, but also that they are exciting – just as motorsport has done for many years since its inception.”

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“Roborace has created a genuinely intriguing concept for the future of motorsport that we are delighted to welcome back to Goodwood,” said Will Kinsman, head of motorsport content at Goodwood. “The presence of Roborace spans both the traditional Festival of Speed in its thoroughbred motorsport application and the Future Lab presentation of technology that is a growing feature of the event; looking at what is being designed to take society into new directions in future.

“This year we are presenting the theme ‘Kings of Speed – Motorsport’s Record Breakers’ and this pioneering series will of course set new records every time that it takes to the track.”

Roborace’s DevBot 2.0 vehicles can be seen in the paddock and will be running the hill autonomously each day over the four days of the Festival of Speed, 4 – 7 July 2019.

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