Roborace Unveils Its (Almost) Fully-Autonomous DevBot 2.0 Racing Prototypes

Roborace has published a series of images showing the first trio of racing prototypes it has built for its inaugural racing season.

The images, shared on Twitter, show the three cars wearing colorful racing liveries and looking absolutely fantastic.

Dubbed the DevBot 2.0, the prototypes take inspiration from LMP race cars and, unlike the Robocar, feature a cockpit. That because, while Roborace originally intended on launching a fully-autonomous racing series to support the Formula E calendar with its driverless Robocar, technical challenges have put those plans on hold.

So, for now, the series will be run in the DevBot 2.0. The program calls for the vehicles to be piloted by a human driver for the first half of each race before the self-driving systems take over for the second half.

Details about the racing calendar remain limited, but Roborace does plan on bringing its all-electric prototypes to circuits in Spain, Italy, the UK, Hungary and the United States. The first event will allegedly kick off behind closed doors this Monday in Spain.

Speaking about the championship last year, Roborace boss and 2016/2017 Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi said the first season would consist of less than 10 cars raced by a handful of teams.

Roborace’s plans for autonomous vehicle racing may be way behind schedule, but the company is continuing to push forward. In fact, it foresees its championship being released in full in 2021 with new cars, which will bring together the best aspects of the DevBot 2.0 and the Robocar.

Season Alpha is here, featuring wheel-to-wheel robot racing, new challenges, and global locations! 🏁 #SeasonAlpha #AIRacing #Robots pic.twitter.com/UnS6jM4qHJ

— Roborace (@roborace) April 26, 2019