Algorithms (and gentlemen), start your engines!

On this Memorial Day weekend – traditional start of the racing season the US and the calendar home of the Indy 500 – we thought we'd take a look at the future of racing, and whether Ricky Bobby will find himself hammering it home in the driver's seat…or pushing fries in the concession stand. Racing leagues – including aptly-named Roborace – are popping up promising spectators the opportunity to see driverless cars compete in virtual battles of algorithms. Teams of researchers are taking algorithms similar to those already being used by major brands like Tesla and Google to put cars on the open road and put them to work on the racetrack. There is so much interest in the idea of pushing autonomous vehicle technologies to the extreme that track days have been set up to enable autonomous technologies developers to put their vehicles to he test on the track. Recently, Arrow Electronics broke records with its semi-autonomous vehicle at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.