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Hi, everyone! So, i'm sure you heard of self-driving cars. Well, apparently, after the fall of Roborace (i blame Tom Scott for this one), some sheiks in Abu Dhabi saw that and said "Hey, maybe we could try our hands at this and say it makes the world better!" And so, A2RL was born. It doesn't have the appeal that most tournaments have with the drivers, but it's something. They technically have a subreddit, but it's currently locked, so i thought it'd go here. The first race was in 2024, and they're planning to hold the next one on April this year. In the meantime, they're making publicity stunts with people like Danill Kvyat and The Stig. Results… were not optimal. Alright, okay. First race, late April 2024. We had 8 teams, but only four competing. Since automakers and racing companies weren't involved, the eight teams were largely from universities around the world. The cars and hardware were provided for them, all they needed to do was code the AIs. They had two months, and no free practice sessions. On race night, before the actual race, they had a 1v1 duel between the aforementioned Kvyat, and a non-competing car from the partner team TII Racing, who is apparently set to join three other rookie teams in 2025. Reports say Kvyat was 10s faster than the AI, even when Kvyat spent most of the time in the pits. And here comes the team list:
The 2024 lineup, plus zero-one. Alright, first things first, qualifying. Unlike F1's Q1/Q2/Q3 qualifying sessions, or FE's qualifying duels, A2RL opted for time trials, three sessions kinda like one-shot qualifying. Three sessions, two on the eve of race day, and one on race day. Feiying, the China team's car, had to be one of the worst. Session 1, starts swerving left and right. Session 2, spins out, and then swerves. They got 7th. 8th place, Sparkz, crashed into the wall and did not set a time. Something to point out: They tried to humanize those cars, giving them names and little avatars that would show up at the bottom right corner of the screen. Hailey (Team TUM) and Eva (Team PoliMOVE) have their own share of issues. On Session 1, Eva just… shut herself down, and came to a stop. Hailey got provisional pole in this session. And then at night, Session 2, Eva spun out on the first corner and Hailey left the track. Session… |
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