WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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- I got an email that said,

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"Hi, we're developing a
fully autonomous race car.

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"Would you like to be driven around
the most famous track in Britain

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"by a computer?"

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Sure.

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- Roborace is an organisation
that specialises in autonomous racing.

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We develop our own autonomous race cars,

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and we run a competition
for teams to enter

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to develop their own
autonomous driving software.

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We're basically trying to further

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autonomous driving technology
through competition.

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- Now, I'm not used to anything like this.

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I have never been driven at speed
around the track by a human.

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And I've never been driven at
all by a fully autonomous car.

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This is the DevBot 2, designed
to take a human passenger.

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Now, the stats aren't spectacular
by supercar standards.

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362 horsepower from two electric motors,

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top speed somewhere
around 135 miles an hour,

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although, as I'm a civilian,
I'm limited to 60,

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and it will take 4.1 seconds to get there.

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But, this is only the development version.

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This is the version that
still carries a human,

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unlike its sleeker cousin over there.

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- Behind me is Robocar.

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This is fully autonomous,
there's no room for a human.

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Whereas, the DevBot
gives us the opportunity

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for human versus machine type challenges.

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It's actually got the same powertrain
on the rear axle as DevBot.

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It's just also got the same powertrain again
on the front axle,

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so it's four wheel drive,
it's got twice the power.

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It's the car we use
for our top speed run.

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We've actually had it to up to 299 kph.

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The sensors on the two cars
are actually the same.

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We use a military grade GPS,
accurate up to about two centimetres,

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so the car knows exactly where it is.

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We've got LIDARs, basically on the
corners of the car and on the sides

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to position where all of the objects
are around the car.

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The third is using cameras,

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and that's for using stereo
vision to judge depth,

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basically, in the same way
a human does with their eyes.

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- So, I'm about to go for a lap
of Silverstone's National Circuit,

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just over one and a half miles,

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which will take around 90 seconds
from a standing start.

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- Once we've created a
map of the track to say,

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"These are the edges, this is
where you're allowed to go,"

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we load that into the car.

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It then has algorithms to
determine its optimum racing line.

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It then chooses what speed it can go

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and when it needs to brake,
when it needs to hit the throttle,

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based on accelerations.

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And, it knows what it can
achieve from the tyres.

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- Now, I know, because I've
never been on a track before,

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that, on that first turn,
my brain is going to think

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that we are coming in too hot,
and it's not going to turn.

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And, I am just going to
need to have some faith

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that the system is working,
and I don't need to take over control

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because I am almost certainly
a worse driver

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than the computer in this car.

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- Basically, when you're trying to do
something for the first time,

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you need to be very safety-conscious.

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We have full live telemetry,
so we can see exactly

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what the car is doing at all times.

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And, we have linked to that
what we call a safe-stop system,

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basically a button that
can turn the car off

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at a moment's notice from anywhere.

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The car can also know to turn itself off.

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If it determines it's too far
off the line it's supposed to be on,

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and it doesn't think it can get back there,

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it it will shut itself down.

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- Moving to drive now, and
then moving out onto the track.

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- We've had a few crashes
over the last year,

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and this has been our
first year of competitions.

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One of the crashes that we had was,
basically, a hardware issue.

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The hardware failed, and
that led to the car believing

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it was in a different place
to where it actually was.

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So, it acted accordingly to go
to where it thought it should be,

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but that was based on bad data

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which then meant the car
hit the wall.

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- All right, I'm lined up,

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and I'm going to take my hands
off the wheel, and put them here,

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and take my feet off the pedals.
and put them on the foot rest.

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To be clear, we are not going to be going
over 100kph here, 60mph,

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because there's a human in the car,
and that's what we're limited to.

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But, acceleration, braking,
and G forces, not limited.

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Okay, ready to go.

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- All right, Tom, we're all good our side,

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so if you are happy, we'll
get ready for launch.

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- Happy is a relative term!
But yes, I am ready to go.

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- All right, copy that, so hold tight.

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We'll launch in three, two, one.

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[engine revving]

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- Okay.

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All right.

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And, I'm being assured that this car

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is not just following
a pre-programmed line.

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It knows the best racing line to take,
of course, it knows the track.

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It's been taught where it should go,

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but it is reacting in real time
to the track conditions,

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to the fact that it's slightly slippery
because of rain earlier.

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And the fact there is -- oh boy!

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The fact there is --

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Oh, that is a perfect racing line.

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The fact there is about 70 kilos of
terrified wet meat sat in the driver's seat,

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because that's all I am right now.

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It's the computer doing everything here,

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and it sounds like an electric car.

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The steering wheel is just moving for me.

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This is astonishing.

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- We've actually had various event formats

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through our first year of competition.

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We've had a race with
multiple cars on the track

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on that same circuit
like a traditional race.

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And, we've also had
competitions that are far more

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on a time trial basis, just
trying to find different formats

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and see how autonomous
racing can really work.

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- And then, final straight
towards the finish, here we go.

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- From a hardware point of view,
the cars are identical.

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We, as a company, run all of the cars.

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The teams, basically,
just provide a driver.

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In normal motor sport, that
would be a human being.

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In this case, it's a few
thousand lines of software code.

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- That is amazing.

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- So, if you program
your car to go faster

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through a corner and get a
better exit from a corner,

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you will be quicker on the straight.
You will be able to overtake.

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- Woo!

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- And, that's really what it's all about.

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We really wanted everyone to focus
on the autonomous driving

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rather than the car setup.

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- Thank you, returning to base.

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- The AI does have
information given to it

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on where the other car is,
what the other car is doing.

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But, at the moment, that's mainly
being used for safety purposes.

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We can control the car
from the control room,

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but we do that, as a company,
for safety reasons.

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The teams are not given any access.

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Once the car has started its race,

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it's only what they've already programmed.

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- So, that was a lot of fun.

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That was wonderful.

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I had a great time, but I also feel
just a little bit underwhelmed

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because it didn't feel
like there was any risk there.

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And, of course, there's no risk there.

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I'm a civilian, they're
going to limit the car,

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they're not going to push it to the edge.

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But, that's because there's
a person in the car,

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and that's what motor sport is about.

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Motor sport is about humans pushing
themselves as close to the limit,

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as close to the red line, as they can.

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And, without that element of risk,
without that person in the car,

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I don't know if it'll work as a sport.

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Roborace is gambling that they can
move the audience's attention

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from people in the car
to people in the pits.

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And, yeah, that was a lot of fun,

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but it's a heck of a gamble.

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- The whole business model
relies on a successful sport,

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which relies on people watching it.

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So, it has to be entertaining.

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We're kind of a strange mix
between

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a technology development
and an entertainment business.

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And, I think there is, actually a lot
of human element still within this.

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Although it's machines racing,

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it's people creating the
code for those machines.

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Something that's forgotten
in traditional motor sport,

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in a Formula One team,
there's a thousand people,

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and you just only hear about
the two that were in the car.

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So, here, all the human stories are really

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about those people in the background,
how they've coded the system,

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and they're still pushing the limit.

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So, it's just, arguably, in a safer manner

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because there isn't a human in
the car if it does go wrong.

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- Thank you so much to
all the team at Roborace.

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Find out more about them by
putting down the description.

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My heart's still going.

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That was only 60!
It felt so much more than 60.