Roborace was planning on launching its autonomous racing series a couple of years ago and, despite the delays, the company recently found the time to team up with Hot Wheels to bring the Robocar to life, albeit in miniature form.
Work on the Robocar racing series commenced at the start of 2016 with the intention of a fully-autonomous racing championship being launched the following year to support the Formula E Championship. However, the company behind the Robocar and the long-promised racing series, Roborace, still continues to test its autonomous prototypes.
Much like the real thing, the Robocar created in collaboration with Hot Wheels looks like something straight out of a science fiction miovie. Not only it lack a passenger cell, the curious shape of the racer makes it almost look like a four-legged insect that rolls around on wheels.
Late last year, Roborace announced a series of important alterations to its series. Instead of racing its all-autonomous vehicles, the company led by 2016/2017 Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi will race the DevBot 2.0 during its inaugural season this year.
The vehicle, pictured below, takes design inspiration from prototype racers and features a cockpit. Current plans call for a human driver to pilot the vehicle for the first half of each race and the self-driving systems to take over during the second half.
Roborace intends on launching its new category in earnest in 2021 with vehicles which bring together the best elements of the DevBot 2.0 and the cockpit-less Robocar.
