Last year the organisers of the Formula E championship announced a partnership to start a global race series for ‘driverless electric cars’. Of course, not a lot of people took it seriously, those who did also had negative views to it; after all, racing is a man’s sport isn’t it?
But not only did the two parties (Formula E and Kinetic) manage to push through its driverless racing using electric cars idea – now named Roborace – they have also appointed Daniel Simon as chief design officer. The incredibly bizarre contraption with wheels you see here is his creation, a concept for what will be raced in Roborace.
Daniel Simon was previously a senior designer at Bugatti and later went on to design everything from drones, motorcycles, spaceships and Le Mans cars throughout his adventurous career.
He is also renowned for his work on Hollywood sci-fi flicks such as Tron: Legacy and Oblivion, Daniel. Perhaps that would explain the incredibly futuristic Roborace Concept design.
Daniel Simon, chief design officer at Robocar, said: “We’re living in a time where the once separated worlds of the automobile and artificial intelligence collide with unstoppable force. It’s fantastic to be part of this journey; it triggers all my big passions – motor racing, design and advanced technologies. My goal was to create a vehicle that takes full advantage of the unusual opportunities of having no driver without ever compromising on beauty. Racing engineers and aerodynamicists have worked with me from the beginning to strike that balance.”
We’ll skip the autonomous driving bit for now and talk about the bodywork. Apparently downforce was a major consideration in the design. The chief design officer explains that the floor is the main aerodynamic device and the team are currently developing active body parts that are more organic and seamless than solutions available today.
We’re told that the first Roborace ‘shows’ will take place during the 2016/2017 Formula E season but the timing does sound very tight. However, if it does happen, we can’t wait to see it ourselves. After all, Roborace will be a support ‘race’ during the usual Formula E races. Which means that it will come to Malaysia too.
