How are COMPANY playing a part in the brave new world of autonomous vehicle systems?

At COMPANY, we often find ourselves at the forefront of automotive technology. We are certainly kept busy all year round, ensuring we are up to date with 3M’s advances in wrap materials, investing in state-of-the-art printing and production facilities including the industry-standard HP Latex 560 and providing on-site wrapping services for racing teams from Formula E to 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, there is one project that has kept us very busy over the last few years and continues to be the most exciting.

Imagine the roads of the future. The shapes. The sounds. What can you see and hear? You’ve likely envisioned a world of existing technologies. Perhaps you heard the warming hum of electric engines, or maybe you saw the sleek, neon-tinged curves of a manufacturer’s sci-fi inspired concept model. Did the vehicles have drivers? If you’ve been paying attention to recent developments in vehicle design, then possibly not.

The truth is, much of that vision of the future is already a reality, albeit still in the early stages of development. Everything, that is, apart from the self-driving vehicle. You may be forgiven for thinking that self-driving vehicles that exceed 160 mph would be a foolish venture. This conclusion doesn’t seem to bother London-based venture capital company Kinetik. They are the organisation behind the world’s first entirely autonomous racing championship. Bolstering their confidence in their technology even further is recent news that one of their pet projects, the Roborace vehicle ‘DevBot 2.0’, recently achieved a Guinness World Record title, with the 700 horsepower machine using its four electric motors to attain a speed of 175.49 mph, although thankfully not on the M25.

Roborace is the world’s first completely autonomous racing tournament and COMPANY have been there since the very beginning, providing livery to all of its vehicles, trucks and trailers. Season Alpha is the first competitive season in this brave new world of technologically-driven motorsport. The brainchild of ABB and the FIA, who are clearly not content with pioneering clean energy motorsport solely in the form of Formula E, this algorithmic, autonomous event is currently well into its Season Alpha run and, if the events regularly broadcast on YouTube are anything to go by, are giving us yet another shining example of how future technologies are poised to change the face of motorsport. 

Now let’s not fool ourselves here. This is motorsport unlike any other. It raises the question ‘Is this even motorsport at all?’ No human interaction? No fuel? No risk? What could possibly be the point? Well, whilst it may not instantly attract die-hard petrol-heads, Roborace is finding an audience amongst technicians, programmers and engineers, especially those with their eyes on the vehicle systems and intelligence technologies of the future.

The current vehicle model, DevBot 2.0, is sleek, majestic and giddying in its beauty and would look great on any starting grid. If the futuristic curves are kindling a sense of nostalgia in your gut it may be due to vehicle designer Daniel Simon, who has worked as a vehicle designer for top-grossing Hollywood movies such as Tron: Legacy. Captain America and Oblivion. This really is motorsport for those who grew up on a diet of science fiction and space ships.

Devbot 2.0 is the base model for Roborace. It has a potential top speed of over 200 mph and, similar to Formula E, every team is provided with the base DevBot 2.0 vehicle, and each is equipped with the same hardware including LiDAR technology. This laser-based radar system works by bouncing lasers from nearby hazards and creating a ‘picture’ of the tracks that the car is then able to navigate. Similar to the reversing sensors that are now ubiquitous in new models, these warn the vehicle as to its proximity to the hazards that surround it from hay bales to run-off areas. 

There are currently two teams competing in Season Alpha, however many more are working behind the scenes to develop the AI necessary for competitive events. The inaugural race pitted the Technical University of Munich (TUM) against Arrival. The TUM team describe their goal as the continuing development of software. The engineers each work on sub-projects that will then contribute to the overall software architecture used in DevBot 2.0. They hope that this will lead to developments in autonomous production that can be applied to myriad autonomous vehicle applications in the future.

Arrival, a technology startup based in Banbury and with their headquarters in London, also busy themselves with developing sustainable vehicles and electric technologies including an incredible smart electric van, and consist of a team of considerable experience with companies as varied as Audi, Jaguar and Apple. Recently announced entrants the University of Pisa will be participating in the next racing round, bringing to the competition the experience and knowledge of a university founded in 1343 and which was home to Antonio Pacinotti, the man who invented the dynamo in 1859.

The teams are tasked solely with programming the Application Programming Interface (API), or artificial intelligence system to in layman’s terms, installed in DevBot 2.0. And we aren’t talking track maps or GPS coordinates, the vehicle is placed on the track and then completes several laps of increasing speed to create its perfect racing line. Initially, the vehicle receives invaluable feedback from a human driver. Autonomous mode is then enabled and the cars are left to forge their own paths and continually improve their lap times. Whilst this may sound relatively simple, teams have discovered that challenges such as autonomous overtaking can make life difficult on the track. All of these developments will lead to smarter, safer technologies on the roads as the lessons learned from the Roborace series are applied to real-life applications such as overtaking lorries and tractors, and navigating busy and unpredictable public spaces. According to Bryn Balcombe, Roborace’s chief strategy officer, the goal is for autonomous vehicles to drive “as naturally as a human but without the mistakes.” 

You can watch COMPANY’s sterling work in the world’s first-ever autonomous race, held at Circuito Monteblanco, Spain and the expanding roster of participating teams promises even greater competition and drama in events to come. If the hopes of Roborace CEO and 2016/2017 Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi are to be realised, the series will eventually migrate to other categories and he even has his sights already set on F1 as a means to showcase the technology on offer and boost the competition’s profile.