Here's Alex Brundle, interviewing one of the cars
May 21, 2024 1:06 AM Subscribe
Autonomous car racing is a bit of a mess. A slightly sarcastic overview of the first ever Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League event (previously)
You know when the heroic music starts up that not one single car is going to finish this race, lol.
posted by subdee at 6:07 AM on May 21
posted by subdee at 6:07 AM on May 21
Two months is a crazy timecrunch, that's as long as we have in FRC (first robotics championship) to build something running off a 12V battery.
But on the other hand, the event organizers hired a professional racer so he could purposefully lose to an AI car to make the tech look better than it really is, so fuck em.
posted by subdee at 6:12 AM on May 21 [3 favorites]
But on the other hand, the event organizers hired a professional racer so he could purposefully lose to an AI car to make the tech look better than it really is, so fuck em.
posted by subdee at 6:12 AM on May 21 [3 favorites]
subdee, that's true, but unless I'm missing something they weren't building the cars and hardware, only the software. Still a huge crunch, but otoh they ended up with some cars that could have been outperformed by a Malibu with a brick jammed on the accelerator pedal and a plastic skeleton lashed to the wheel, so who knows
posted by phooky at 6:42 AM on May 21 [4 favorites]
posted by phooky at 6:42 AM on May 21 [4 favorites]
subdee: They failed at some pretty basic stuff. Did you get to the part where the cars are under a full-course yellow (so, not allowed to pass) but no one has programmed an exception for passing cars that have already crashed and are off the track? So when a car spins out and the track is under yellow, and the leader comes to another car, pulled over to the side because it also failed, the entire race just . . . stops?
My son was an FRC competitor (and champion (dad brag)). No respectable high-school robotics team would have screwed up something that basic.
posted by The Bellman at 6:50 AM on May 21 [2 favorites]
My son was an FRC competitor (and champion (dad brag)). No respectable high-school robotics team would have screwed up something that basic.
posted by The Bellman at 6:50 AM on May 21 [2 favorites]
What this appears to really have been is something more like a college-level robotics or engineering competition
Exactly.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:52 AM on May 21
Exactly.
Each year, teams from educational and technological institutions from around the world compete to develop the fastest, most capable racing AI. The reward? A stake in a multi-million-dollar prize pool. For the 2024 season, $2.25 million is up for grabs.Knowing that, the idea of someone taking it mock seriously is humorous. I’ll bet the teams enjoyed the video.
The series aims to accelerate the development of advanced autonomous systems while inspiring the next generation of STEM leaders. A2RL is also playing a role in making Abu Dhabi a world-leading city for autonomous technology development and deployment
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:52 AM on May 21
So when a car spins out and the track is under yellow, and the leader comes to another car, pulled over to the side because it also failed, the entire race just . . . stops?
Given the equipment costs I’ll bet there is a strong bias towards stopping for any reason.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:59 AM on May 21 [3 favorites]
Given the equipment costs I’ll bet there is a strong bias towards stopping for any reason.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:59 AM on May 21 [3 favorites]
The video title is misleading, it's not the first "AI powered race", the Indy Autonomous Challenge has been going since 2021 (never mind the slo-mo DARPA Grand Challenge in 2004). The human driver may be a new element, but bfd. I'm guessing the Emiratis didn't mind throwing a few spare F1 cars at this to compete.
There are four rookie teams in this race, one student engineer says they had to learn C++ during the competition. I'm guessing that and the crazy time crunch account for a little of the goofiness of the cars.
I'll leave it to F1 nerds to decide whether this is compelling.
posted by credulous at 8:40 AM on May 21 [1 favorite]
There are four rookie teams in this race, one student engineer says they had to learn C++ during the competition. I'm guessing that and the crazy time crunch account for a little of the goofiness of the cars.
I'll leave it to F1 nerds to decide whether this is compelling.
posted by credulous at 8:40 AM on May 21 [1 favorite]
Ok, but I think using very expensive cars you have to protect removes the coolest part of not having humans in the car: You don't have to worry about hurting anyone!
Give everyone whatever the modern version of a K-Car is, something on the way to the scrapyard. Let them do all the modifications they want to it, and then let them go nuts and race like it is a video game. Risky overtakes? Cutting people off in a dangerous manner? Lets see it!
Note: You could also do this with remote control rigs, which might be even cooler.
posted by Canageek at 11:48 AM on May 21
Give everyone whatever the modern version of a K-Car is, something on the way to the scrapyard. Let them do all the modifications they want to it, and then let them go nuts and race like it is a video game. Risky overtakes? Cutting people off in a dangerous manner? Lets see it!
Note: You could also do this with remote control rigs, which might be even cooler.
posted by Canageek at 11:48 AM on May 21
While this looks sort of interesting, I'd much rather see fully autonomous Battlebots. Just press the start button and let them fight. It would be a nice preview of the future.
posted by Marky at 1:18 PM on May 21 [1 favorite]
posted by Marky at 1:18 PM on May 21 [1 favorite]
The problem with Battlebots is that Grant Imahara (RIP) came up with a best solution for direct bot to bot combat. Maybe if we add projectiles...
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 2:20 PM on May 21
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 2:20 PM on May 21
As a motorsport enthusiast, I'm appalled by the idea of autonomous racing and would not be interested in it at all. But, as a tech nerd, I'm fascinated by the idea. The difficulty they had in getting cars to go around a very clearly defined and mapped-out track with clear driving lines for the best performance, no unexpected obstacles and endless data from human drivers (assuming they had access to that) shows just how challenging it is to make actual autonomous cars work.
The issue they had around cautions was a big own-goal, but I wonder how much actual motorsport expertise the teams actually had that would have allowed them to think through all the scenarios and how to react. It looks like the cars were programmed based on a programmer reading the rule book without any real-world experience.
posted by dg at 4:58 PM on May 21 [2 favorites]
The issue they had around cautions was a big own-goal, but I wonder how much actual motorsport expertise the teams actually had that would have allowed them to think through all the scenarios and how to react. It looks like the cars were programmed based on a programmer reading the rule book without any real-world experience.
posted by dg at 4:58 PM on May 21 [2 favorites]
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What this appears to really have been is something more like a college-level robotics or engineering competition, where most of the teams are made up of university students. From that perspective the results here are pretty much what you'd expect; a lot of teams failing to submit a viable entry and the ones that do make it barely able to keep it together. Promoting this as anything else is just bullshit. Also bullshit: autonomous racing cars using internal combustion engines. It's Abu Dhabi, though, so the bullshit is on brand.
posted by phooky at 5:24 AM on May 21 [3 favorites]