Roborace is the world’s first competition for human + AI teams, using both self-driving and manually-controlled cars. Race formats will feature new forms of immersive entertainment to engage the next generation of racing fans. Through sport, innovations in machine-driven technologies will be accelerated. A self-driving car has set a speed record of 175 mph.
In November 2017, Musk said the next Tesla Roadster would have three motors and be able to travel a whopping 0 to 60 miles per hour in 1.9 seconds with a top speed of 250 mph or even more. The Roadster should be in production in 2020. Tesla Model S and Model X can reach speeds of 155 mph. Tesla is working to make all of their electric cars’ self-driving.
There are some driver’s and some section of the 8000 kilometers of German Autobahn where it is possible to drive at 200 kph (125 mph). Most autobahn driving is at 130 km/h (81 mph) to 180 km/h (111 mph).
It generally takes twice as much fuel or energy to drive a car at 200 km/h (124 mph) versus 120 km/h (74.5 mph).
Safe High Speed Cars
Dedicated one-way roadways can be made fairly safe for high-speed traffic. This is the principle of race tracks.
In 2014, the autobahns carried 31% of motorized German road traffic while accounting for 11% of Germany’s traffic deaths. The autobahn fatality rate of 1.6 deaths per billion travel-kilometers compared favorably with the 4.6 rate on urban streets and 6.5 rate on rural roads.
By June 2019, Elon Musks Boring Company (TBC) had paved the Los Angeles Hawthorne tunnel roadway with asphalt, smoothed the surface, added a guideway for autonomous vehicle operation. They were testing car runs through the mile-long tunnel at much higher speeds: 90 mph (140 km/h) for autonomous control and up to 116 mph (187 km/h) with human control.
Elon Musk has talked about cars in the Boring Tunnels going at 150 mph. Each single lane tunnel would go in one direction.
Efficiency of Passenger Planes Versus Gas Cars
In 1970, flying was twice as energy-intensive as driving, but that has changed. A fully loaded fuel-efficient passenger jet needs 1.3 gallons to move a passenger 60 miles. Cars with an average of 1.38 people per car would need 45 mpg of fuel efficiency to beat the planes or if they were carrying an average of 2.3 people with the average US car fuel efficiency of 21.6 mpg.
Ridesharing and electric cars will make cars more energy-efficient for moving people.
SOURCES- Tesla, Wired, Wikipedia, Japantimes, Bloomberg, Roborace
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
!Will be solved once understood… == engineering
…Whatever could go wrong?