Formula E and Kinetik today announced a partnership with the intention to launch a global race series for driverless electric cars.

The new championship called 'ROBORACE' will provide a competitive platform for the autonomous driving solutions that are now being developed by many large industrial automotive and technology players as well as top tech universities.

The plan is for ROBORACE to form part of the support package of the FIA Formula E Championship, with the first race intended to take place during the 2016-2017 season. ROBORACE is aimed to take place prior to each Formula E race, using the same circuits in major cities across the world. Ten teams, each with two driverless cars, will compete in one-hour races over the full championship season. All the teams will have the same cars however will compete using real-time computing algorithms and AI technologies.

"We passionately believe that, in the future, all of the world's vehicles will be assisted by AI and powered by electricity, thus improving the environment and road safety," said Denis Sverdlov, Founder of Kinetik and ROBORACE.

"ROBORACE is a celebration of revolutionary technology and innovation that humanity has achieved in that area so far. It's a global platform to show that robotic technologies and AI can co-exist with us in real life. Thus, anyone who is at the edge of this transformation now has a platform to show the advantages of their driverless solutions and this shall push the development of the technology."

The mission of ROBORACE is to demonstrate that the future of automotive and information technology is already here and can even work in extreme conditions. ROBORACE believes that there is a lot of independent talents in the world that might contribute to this initiative. That is why one of the race teams will be organised as a crowd-sourced community team open for enthusiastic software and technology experts all over the world.

Further support for both Formula E and ROBORACE shall come from Charge, an automotive start-up founded by Kinetik that develops revolutionary range-extended electric powertrains for commercial vehicles. Charge will become Official Truck Partner of the FIA Formula E Championship and will provide electric trucks for the drivers' parade, towing trucks for emergency recovery of the racing cars and shuttles for transportation of guests and visitors of the championship around the eVillage.

"We are very excited to be partnering with Kinetik on what is surely one of the most cutting-edge sporting events in history," said Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E. "ROBORACE is an open challenge to the most innovative scientific and technology-focused companies in the world. It is very exciting to create a platform for them to showcase what they are capable of and I believe there is great potential for us to unearth the next big idea through the unique crowd-sourced contest."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Darvic, 04/12/2015 9:05

"Well this is the start of the end, driverless cars will be quicker than those with drivers soon. In the same way that IBM's Big Blue won at chess against the grand masters. and chess lost the attention of the public as soon as people realise that driverless cars are quicker than cars driven by humans it just becomes another computer game. FEH are speeding up their own demise. "

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2. Posted by edllorca, 29/11/2015 1:49

"Well they are following the F! lead of 'feed the fans garbage racing they'll watch it anyway" so now these guys think people will sit a watch a 'non-race'? Why would I want to watch computers race each other? If there are no humans participating is it still a sport?"

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3. Posted by jcr, 28/11/2015 19:15

"Wonder where this will fit in with FIA qualification for superlicence.
Verstappen eat your heart out !!"

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4. Posted by nonickname, 28/11/2015 11:32

"At last a real replacement for F1."

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5. Posted by FormerF1Fan, 28/11/2015 11:07

"Technology is so dominant in F1 right now that we are pretty much there anyway. Any driver on the grid in a Mercedes will either be first or second."

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6. Posted by Ro, 28/11/2015 8:49

"But its not April fool's day !"

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7. Posted by Speedbump, 28/11/2015 7:05

"Really ? What a great idea, set loose a dozen or more 1500 kg cars, moving at 250+ kilometers an hour, with no driver controlling them. But wait, let's make it even more exciting and do it where there are thousands of spectators, (surely not there to see this crap), to launch the cars into when they experience Honda like software crashes and get a mind of their own."

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8. Posted by sumpnz, 28/11/2015 0:25

"Srsly? Whisky Tango Foxtrot?

Nobody will watch this, at least after the novelty of one or two "races" wears off."

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9. Posted by alfsboy, 27/11/2015 23:08

"Take the driver out of the car and you are left with a soulless drone race .I assume this is agag or at least agaga."

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Formula E aims for driverless support series

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