Formula E, the all-electric racing championship that is spreading awareness of electric drivetrain technology around the world, has announced another auto-racing first: a global race series for driverless electric cars, in partnership with investment company Kinetik.

This mission of Roborace is to provide a competitive platform for the autonomous driving solutions that are now being developed by automotive and tech companies and universities.

Roborace will be part of the support package for the FIA Formula E Championship – the driverless race will take place prior to each Formula E event, using the same racecourse. The first Roborace is scheduled for the 2016-2017 season.

Ten teams, each with two driverless cars, will compete in one-hour races over the full championship season. All teams will use the same cars, and will compete using real-time computing algorithms and AI technologies.

One of the race teams will be a crowd-sourced community team, open to software and technology experts from all over the world.

“We passionately believe that, in the future, all of the world’s vehicles will be assisted by AI and powered by electricity, thus improving the environment and road safety,” said Kinetik founder Denis Sverdlov. “Roborace is a global platform to show that robotic technologies and AI can co-exist with us in real life. Thus, anyone who is at the edge of this transformation now has a platform to show the advantages of their driverless solutions, and this shall push the development of the technology.”

Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E, said, “Roborace is an open challenge to the most innovative scientific and technology-focused companies in the world. It is very exciting to create a platform for them to showcase what they are capable of and I believe there is great potential for us to unearth the next big idea through the unique crowd-sourced contest.”

Source: Formula E