Roborace, the world’s first global championship for full-size electric-powered autonomous racecars, which recently announced that it had signed an MoU with Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) and Mubadala Investment Company, has selected Velodyne as the official lidar sensor provider in its next generation vehicles.
RoboRace will use Velodyne‘s solid-state Velarray H800 sensors in its electric-powered autonomous race cars for the Season One championship series, which is set to begin in 2022.
The Velodyne and RoboRace engineering teams have been working collaboratively on the race car development project. The Velarray H800 was the clear choice of the RoboRace engineering and design team due to Velodyne’s technical prowess, sensor performance and reliability, and trust across the industry.
“At RoboRace, we are always searching for the best technology to build into our race cars and Velodyne has one of the best products available on the market,” said Chip Pankow, Chief Championship Officer, RoboRace. “The Velarray will help our cars achieve safe navigation and collision avoidance in competitive autonomous racing.”
RoboRace was created to accelerate development of autonomous driving systems by pushing the technology to its limits in a range of safe, controlled environments. It provides the platform, organization and support while racing teams are responsible for their own code and strategy. Season One of the RoboRace Championship will feature multi-agent racing and Metaverse elements with each competition designed to provide a variety of challenges. There are commercial and university racing teams in the competition.
“RoboRace is a proving ground for the next generation of mobility by putting self-driving technologies to the test in performance racing,” said Sinclair Vass, Chief Commercial Officer, Velodyne Lidar. “With its long-range perception and broad field of view, the Velarray H800 is a great fit for its autonomous race cars. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with RoboRace in advancing innovation in the sport of racing.”
Velodyne‘s Velarray H800 is a solid-state lidar sensor architected for automotive-grade performance. The sensor is built using its breakthrough proprietary micro-lidar array (MLA) architecture. The Velarray H800 allows for outstanding detection of peripheral, near-field and overhead objects while addressing corner cases on sloping and curving roads. It is designed for safe navigation and collision avoidance in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous mobility applications.
RoboRace also set the Guinness World Record for having the fastest autonomous car in the world. The Robocar reached a speed of 282.42 km/h (175.49 mph). In September 2020, RoboRace commenced its Season Beta series with six competing teams taking place at various locations, featuring 12 races.
Under the agreement signed with ADIO and Mubadala, the three organisations will explore the development of innovative products based on autonomous technologies and RoboRace metaverse infrastructure to facilitate faster and wider adoption of autonomous vehicle technology.
RoboRace will review the opportunity to establish its regional HQ in Abu Dhabi, and will also consider the operation of upcoming seasons of its autonomous racing series from and in Abu Dhabi. It will also collaborate with ADIO and Mubadala on the development of its metaverse technology from the testing and simulation of autonomous driving systems in specialised centers of expertise in Abu Dhabi.
