TOKYO (AP) — An anticipated showdown between human and artificial intelligence at Japan’s Suzuka Circuit ended before it began when the autonomous race car crashed during its warmup lap, highlighting both the progress and limitations of self-driving technology.
The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) had planned a demonstration race between its AI-powered vehicle and former Formula One driver Daniil Kvyat during the Super Formula season finale. The autonomous car, carrying 95 kilograms of computers and sensors instead of a human driver, lost control and hit a wall tail-first before completing its practice lap.
“The cold tires on the cold track caused a loss of traction,” explained Khurram Hassan, A2RL’s commercial director. A later press release cited a sudden loss of tire pressure as the cause of the crash.
The incident underscored the challenges facing autonomous racing technology. Giovanni Pau, Team Principal of TII Racing, acknowledged these limitations during a press briefing: “We don’t have human intuition. It’s impossible today to do a correct grip estimation. A thing my friend Daniil can do in a nanosecond.”
Despite the setback, the technology has shown improvement. The autonomous vehicles have reduced their lap time deficit from 3-5 minutes to about eight seconds behind human drivers, now achieving 90-95 percent of human racing speeds.
“You could do things on a computer screen, but this is so important. Because you have to be on the track,” Hassan said, emphasizing the gap between simulation and reality.
The vehicle, equipped with Sony 4K cameras, radars, lidar, and high-definition GPS, required weeks of preparation at Suzuka. Teams had to remap the entire circuit after discovering the purchased HD map was off by meters.
A2RL maintains transparency about current technological limitations, noting that the vehicles cannot perform basic racing tasks like swerving to warm up tires. The organization emphasizes it’s not aiming to replace human racing but to develop safety technologies that could benefit consumer vehicles.
Kvyat, who has worked with A2RL since its inception, highlighted the unpredictability of sharing the track with an autonomous vehicle. “I have to try to follow the car first to see what line it chooses and to understand where it is safe to race it,” he said before the planned demonstration.
The event’s premature end serves as a reminder of racing’s inherent challenges, whether human or machine-driven.
