The championship, dubbed ROBORACE, is set to make its debut during the first ePrix of the 2016/17 season using identical all-electric, autonomous cars. Races will be one hour long, to be held two hours before each ePrix – with teams able only to modify the car’s software and not any physical aspects of the car.
Each of the 10 teams will be required to run two cars, while one of the teams will be crowdsourced. It will also be open to – but not compulsory for – Formula E’s existing teams, and is aimed primarily at those outfits with manufacturer links or a specific interest in the development of driverless technology.
Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag added that the ethos of the series fits in with a future vision of the car that he described as “electric, connected and driverless.”
Queried about the lack of characters in a series for autonomous cars, Sverdlov was adamant that personality could be expressed in other ways.
“We want the engineers to be public people, so that the personality comes from the teams, and we will make it mandatory that every car has a name,” he said.
