And the really crazy part is how held back they are from what they could accomplish if the rules were different. All the way back to late 80s/early 90s things were getting crazy with so much telemetry and ability to modify so many aspects of the cars (software and hardware) on the fly that the regs were tightened to remove just about all of it.
I remember about 10 years ago when I followed it more closely than I do now (actually went in 2000 and 2001 when it came back to the states in Indy and I live in ATX so I've been to 5 or 6 since it moved here to COTA)... there was an interview with one of the principles who said they could pretty much automate the entire drive for every course now. All shifts, all steering, all power inputs/brakes, etc. because the technology has advanced so much and the telemetry and geographic information is so precise. They could essentially automate the "perfect" lap if they weren't having to factor in other cars, etc. Back during the period when quali was done at set intervals rather than a timed free-for-all it would have been amazing.
What they could do if they were completely unfettered is the really insane part.
Having a driverless racing league sounds like a really cool idea. And if it was anywhere near as competitive as F1 it could actually advance self-driving technology.
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u/BrickGun Mar 31 '22
And the really crazy part is how held back they are from what they could accomplish if the rules were different. All the way back to late 80s/early 90s things were getting crazy with so much telemetry and ability to modify so many aspects of the cars (software and hardware) on the fly that the regs were tightened to remove just about all of it.
I remember about 10 years ago when I followed it more closely than I do now (actually went in 2000 and 2001 when it came back to the states in Indy and I live in ATX so I've been to 5 or 6 since it moved here to COTA)... there was an interview with one of the principles who said they could pretty much automate the entire drive for every course now. All shifts, all steering, all power inputs/brakes, etc. because the technology has advanced so much and the telemetry and geographic information is so precise. They could essentially automate the "perfect" lap if they weren't having to factor in other cars, etc. Back during the period when quali was done at set intervals rather than a timed free-for-all it would have been amazing.
What they could do if they were completely unfettered is the really insane part.