Self-racing cars are already a reality

If you were worried that self-racing cars would become the future of motorsport, worry not. They already exist, but they’re not very exciting.

At Thunderhill Raceway, a couple of hours away from San Francisco, event aptly called Self Racing Cars have been held over the past couple of years.

If the fact that a Toyota Prius and a Ford Mondeo (or Fusion, in the US) are the most prominent cars shown in the above clip doesn’t already have you underwhelmed, there’s more.

AutonomousTuff, a company which develops tech for autonomous cars, has posted an onboard video for a lap of the track in what appears to be a somewhat uninspiring Lincoln MKZ.

A few seconds before the two minute mark, one of the occupants points out an upcoming blind corner, and says that the advantage of a self-racing car is that it already knows how to exit the corner.

While this is true compared to someone who’s never seen the track before, anyone trying for a quick lap time is likely to already know each of the track’s corners, regardless of its visibility.

Another lap which seems to have everyone excited – for some reason- is that posted by an Acura ILX (essentially Acura’s version of the Honda Civic) belonging to Swerve AI.

It ran the west circuit – which some research suggests isn’t one of the main configurations of Thunderhill – in 2.05. Research also revealed some punters out there reckon an MX-5 could tackle it in under 1.30.

We understand that this all has a purpose – to make driving AI better so that when it finally hits the roads en masse, it doesn’t also cause havoc. What better environment to cultivate progress than one of competition?

But should we be worried about it taking jobs away from people like our mate Warren Luff, Supercars racer and MOTOR’s lap-time prodigy?

Probably not.