UAE: Driverless race cars to battle it out during world's largest autonomous contest

The UAE is no stranger to the concept of autonomous vehicles which has gripped the imagination for well over a decade.

Taking AI and autonomous driving to the next level, Abu Dhabi will host the racing of autonomous vehicles for the first time next year with around 10 institutions taking part in the competition. This will be the world’s largest racing of autonomous cars. The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) of cars will be held in the UAE capital on April 28, 2024.

“Instead of racing drivers, it will be coders who will be competing on the Formula 1 racing track of the Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi next year,” said Dr Tom McCarthy, executive director of Aspire.

The firm is convening international university teams and industry stakeholders as well as skilled scientists, coders, and developers to participate and incorporate cutting-edge technologies into racing vehicles to reshape the future of mobility through extreme sports.

“The teams will be on track two weeks ahead of the race, practising full-time. We will have live races in the last week of April. There will be 10 teams from around the world, including the UAE,” said McCarthy.

He pointed out that all the cars have one design but what is different is the software and programming that different teams will have. “So instead of racing drivers in the cars, it will be coders that are doing the thing.”

Racing drones, buggies

The company will also unveil the car at Gitex Global on Monday and share more details about the participants.

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