Forum Sections > Science & Tech > Chris Gerdes: The future race car -- 150mph, and no driver |
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| Webmaster of AhoyNoob | Jul 12 2012 at 01:07:35 GMT | |||
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i like the technology, providing it's 100% safe when it hiits the public domain but i feel that autonomous racing cars kinda takes the fun out of it, racing is about the driver as much as it is about the car, the combination of man and machine temporarily working in harmony. taking the human element away just sterilises it for me. | |||
| Jul 15 2012 at 18:34:31 GMT | ||||
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Oh I totally agree, a bunch of machines driving around a track is not a "race".
It tests the ingenuity of the designers and mechanics sure but, what's the point? One good thing that's coming out of it though is the fact that these autonomous cars are eventually going to be far superior than human drivers can possibly be. I can imagine by like 2030 or so that we will have autonomous only lanes on the motorways where these cars are allowed to drive at massive velocities. London to Manchester in less than 1 hour? One time I personally set some sort of speed record for Abergele to Manchester, a distance of about 70 miles, in a ford escort cabriolet with a 1.6 litre ZETEC engine... They would probably ban me from driving for life if I told you how long it took! Good thing there are no speed cameras on that entire road tbh ^.^ |
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| Webmaster of AhoyNoob | Jul 15 2012 at 18:43:40 GMT | |||
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In the 70's I used to do what was called "bracket racing". - Sort of drag racing for street cars.
The sport was new and we needed to use our brains and ingenuity. (I was very good at lightening cars without compromising their strength, primarily because I'd come from the aircraft industry, not the motor industry. I teamed up with a guy who knew about engines and we had a fair few wins.) As the sport matured, money moved in and the richest started winning, simply because they could afford it. In effect, they bought the wins. The rest of us couldn't compete with regular new engines, nitrous oxide injection etc. Of course this drove the amateurs and the fun out. It's now a rich man's pastime. |
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| Miserable old f*cker (MOF) | Jul 16 2012 at 06:32:33 GMT | |||
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Couldn't you segment it into performance leagues? | |||
| Webmaster of AhoyNoob | Jul 16 2012 at 15:51:39 GMT | |||
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I think something like that is done these days (not too sure as I've not looked for a very long time) but even at the lower grades money is (was) still facilitating wins.
I think things like the Gimpball rally are much more even and give those without deep pockets a bit of a chance. IIRC the Gimpball rally limits the purchase price of the car to £250. (Though I wouldn't mind betting that there's a little creativity going on,) |
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| Miserable old f*cker (MOF) | Jul 17 2012 at 05:10:01 GMT | |||
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