Roborace is a series of car races around the world involving sports cars with the distinction of being based exclusively on autonomous driving technologies. The concept is simple: the teams use their own self-driving vehicles, and with electric propulsion, to race real circuits.

All participants use the same frame and the same engine , but are responsible for creating their own autonomous driving software for controlling the car. The competition, therefore, tests the choice abilities of artificial intelligence, since these are vehicles that mechanically and frame are in the same conditions.

Ready, set … and the car crashes!

During a recent Roborace race, the Acronis SIT Autonomous team vehicle was waiting on the starting grid, in an absolutely normal situation. But as soon as the start was made, the vehicle abruptly turned towards the wall that separates the track from the pit lane crashing into it.

Roborace is the world first driver-less / autonomous motorsports category.

This is one of their first live-broadcasted events.

This was the second run.

It drove straight into a wall. pic.twitter.com/ss5R2YVRi3

— Ryan (@dogryan 100) October 29, 2020

Team principal Ilya Shimchik told the media that it was not immediately clear why the car crashed. However, an individual who claims to be an engineer on the Acronis SIT team later reported on Reddit what really happened. The problem occurred following an initialization lap, after which the steering returned a NaN value (not a number) which has not been interpreted by the autonomous driving system. When it came to starting the car the f system luffed a swerve to the right to compensate for the incorrect sensor reading .

Fortunately no one was hurt, and the accident, while tearing a smile, reminds us how complex and difficult it can be to develop a self-driving car and make sure of its correct functioning, even in an absolutely controlled condition such as the one in which the crime occurred.

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