FIA Could Introduce Driverless Safety Car in Future

Formula One has always been about three things, fast cars, fast drivers and incorporating future technology in their engineering. Speaking of the future, the concept of driverless cars on the road has arisen on many occasions. While such a concept will be considered sacrilegious for many F1 fans, including present company, the sport’s electric baby brother, Formula E has introduced a similar concept called RoboRace. The FIA have thought of a compromise for F1 though, driverless cars could be promoted through other means.

The head of the FIA Technical Department, Marcin Budkowski put forward an idea to make the Safety car driverless so that an element of the future is introduced without taking away the spectacle of an F1 race.  “It would promote a technology about which there is a bit of scepticism and, instead, it could be shown that it works. The safety car driver would no longer be essential, because it would leave the controls to the computer.” Budkowski was inspired by Formula E’s support series RoboRace, a competition comprising solely of driverless cars.

“I see it [Roborace] as a very interesting thing, which pushes things in one direction,” said Budkowski. But can this idea of having no F1 driver captivate millions around the world? Frankly I have doubts. However, using the motorsport platform to promote to the public new technologies, like an unmanned safety car, or events like Roborace, can be fantastic in exploring the possibility of new solutions.”

Budkowski also said that autonomous driving will also aid in the FIA’s Action for Road Safety campaign.