Earlier this month, six fully driverless cars raced around Yas Marina Circuit at speeds over 250km/h as part of the world’s largest autonomous race, A2RL. Instead of a driver or remote control, each car was driven by AI developed by some of the world’s brightest minds – all competing for a $2.25 million prize pool. This was only the second time the competition had been run, and the progress since season one was outstanding.
TUM retains title as back-to-back Champions
While 11 teams went through the rigorous qualification process, only the 6 fastest would be chosen to race wheel-to-wheel in the A2RL Grand Final. Last year’s A2RL Champion, TUM from Germany, was on pole with Italian rivals Unimore hot on their heels.
An exhilarating start to the 20-lap race saw Unimore quickly take the lead. They managed to maintain this lead for much of the race until they (and TUM) started to catch and lap the backmarkers. This is where a critical misjudgement resulted in a collision and TUM swiftly moving into first place. It was a dramatic conclusion resulting in back-to-back titles for TUM.
Autonomous evolution: EAV-25 & SF23
Each EAV-25 racecar in A2RL is based on the SF23 developed by Dallara in conjunction with Japan Race Promotion (JRP). JRP is the organiser of Super Formula, the world’s second-fastest formula racing series. The innovative bodywork was carried over into the EAV-25, which had a host of upgrades to the ‘autonomous stack’ over the previous season’s EAV-24.
The sidepods and engine covers of all EAV-25 racecars are made from a specialist ‘hybrid’ combination of ampliTex™, powerRibs™ and conventional carbon fibre in a 70:30 ratio. This provides an optimised combination of benefits, leveraging each material’s strengths while still significantly reducing the parts’ carbon footprint and maintaining low mass. It proved so successful that the application was shortlisted for the World Motorsport Symposium Green Tech Award.
For more information
If you would like to learn more about our work on the SF23, we have an article here.
To discover more about A2RL, visit https://a2rl.io/
Pictures © A2RL
