The Autonomous Racing League Is a Reality. Do You Care

You may not be aware that history was made last weekend, but apparently quite a few techno-geeks did: It was the inaugural event of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League at the Yas Marina road course, with eight driverless formula cars from around the world competing, or trying to, as the event revealed that autonomous racing isn't quite ready for prime time.

That said, the Autonomous Racing League claims that 10,000 spectators watched the event in person, while over 600,000 watched it online. Since the broadcast was more than three hours long, and the actual race was just eight laps among four cars, with two that actually finished, it took some stamina to watch the whole show.

That broadcast was decidedly of the rah-rah variety, including contributions from American broadcaster Amanda Busick, absent from her usual role as pit reporter for the NHRA drag racing. It was a "stupendous weekend!" for the Autonomous Racing League's inaugural event, Busick posted on her Instagram account. "Hard to verbalize how professionally satisfying this experience was."

Competing were modified versions of the Dallara Super Formula SF23 car, which is described in the press release as being "the fastest open-wheel race car in the world after Formula 1," which is probably surprising to IndyCar given these SF23s are powered by a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine.

In one time-filling segment, former Formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat raced against one of the autonomous cars, provided by the Technology Innovation Institute, and beat it by 10.38 seconds. That would normally be a substantial margin, but the Autonomous Racing League described it as "a narrow victory."

There were multiple qualifying sessions, in which one autonomous car simply turned right into a barrier along a straightaway, and another car locked up all four wheels and braked to a dead stop as it approached a left-hand corner. "It appears to be a coding error," we were told repeatedly when a car misbehaved.

By the time the eight-lap race was ready to run, only four cars made it to the starting line, and two of them seemed to disappear from the broadcast, as cameras concentrated on the race between TUM, the car entered by the Technical University of Munich, and an Italian entry named UNIMORE. TUM passed it on the last lap when UNIMORE simply stopped on the track, right in the racing line.

Still, the organizers were jubilant. Said H.E. Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary General of the Advanced Technical Research Council: "Through the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League, we've sparked a race revolution … This event isn't just a race; it's a transformative moment where technology, imagination, and ambition converge."

Much can be excused for an inaugural event of this sort: The technology, though unreliable, was impressive, and it's easy to imagine it improving dramatically over the next few years. But the question remains: Can you get excited by a race with cars driven by AI instead of a person?

You can watch the three-hour, 12-minute Autonomous Racing League broadcast here.

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