GTC Europe Live Blog: What is Level 5 Autonomous Motorsport?

10:01AM EDT - One of the talks at GTC EU today is titled 'What is Level 5 Autonomous Motorsport?'. Live blogging time!

10:01AM EDT - Bryn Balcome, part of Roborace on the stage

10:01AM EDT - Level 5 Autonomous Motorsport is coming

10:01AM EDT - >The speaker has a history in F1 and motorsport

10:02AM EDT - Going through some racing history

10:03AM EDT - Autonomous Motorsport was predicted years ago

10:03AM EDT - OEMs are very interested in power. A picture of a Bugatti Chiron on the screen

10:03AM EDT - Now we talk about cognitive power, not mechanical power

10:04AM EDT - Demonstrating cognitive intelligence in the crucible of motorsport

10:04AM EDT - 'Motorsport will split between pure racing and technology'

10:04AM EDT - CEO on an info video

10:05AM EDT - 'Creating an automotive motorsport to accelerate consumer delivery of this technology'

10:05AM EDT - Oh ok, the CEO is Lucas Di Grassi

10:05AM EDT - Robocar on a track at Paris during the Formula E weekend

10:06AM EDT - One year from concept to the car being designed

10:06AM EDT - Racing drivers have emotions and characters that take time to develop - AI can be trained to have these emotions

10:07AM EDT - 'Incidents such as F1 big crashes shouldn't happen' - wait what?

10:07AM EDT - Formula 1 is becoming less relevant to road racing each season and going in a different direction

10:08AM EDT - Le Mans style racing is even more different

10:08AM EDT - F1 and Le Mans doesn't develop ADAS systems to assist the drivers

10:08AM EDT - Arguably real road environments are more difficult than racing

10:09AM EDT - Racing is about car control, which can be developed through motorsport

10:10AM EDT - Audi and BMW have both showed racing around a track using autonomous systems, including drifting at 'high' speeds

10:10AM EDT - Optimal car control is not a solved problem, but will get there

10:10AM EDT - Now it's about situational awareness

10:10AM EDT - How cars react to different scenarios

10:10AM EDT - Such as avoidance of new obstacles of an environment it already knows

10:11AM EDT - Racing is all about interacting with other drivers and implementing your own influence in an environment

10:12AM EDT - 'Think about Pikes Peak with traffic, and imagine the challenge for an autonomous vehicle racing side by side through traffic'

10:12AM EDT - It is critical that your driver is intelligent, not just raw pace

10:13AM EDT - Bringing research to life so the public engages

10:14AM EDT - Street racing helps develop road relevant AI capabilities

10:15AM EDT - Develping AI to assist drivers - using AI between spotters and drivers in Nascar

10:15AM EDT - Already used in Rallying and side-car racing

10:16AM EDT - (Rallying and side-car use two drivers that collaborate - AI should be the same in other motorsport and on the road)

10:16AM EDT - e.g. the AI takes over in critical scenarios if the driver does not react to an obstacle

10:17AM EDT - Human drivers in autonomous simulators to help train the AI with suggested movements

10:18AM EDT - Q&A time

10:19AM EDT - Q: Timeline to develop autonomous motorsport

10:19AM EDT - A: We'll see small step progression and competition formats evolving to set new targets and challenges. Evolve as the industry evolves

10:20AM EDT - Q: How many contenders does Roborace have?

10:21AM EDT - A: We only need two cars to compete. Over 150 companies have showed interest to be involved (although these are OEM). We're focusing on PhD/Postdoc level competitiveness

10:21AM EDT - Q: Is the hardware fixed ?

10:22AM EDT - A: The hardware vehicle element is one, the intelligence platform is another, and a third is then AI drivers. This competition wants to focus on the AI drivers segment

10:25AM EDT - Q: How are you going to show the public that these AIs are more than ones or zeros, where real world drivers have emotions?

10:29AM EDT - A: It's all about interpreting risk. When we watch a driver in the car, we interpret their actions and how they manage risk. AIs will be similar - the management of risk will lead to developing personalities that will play out on the track