00:00At an Italian Formula One circuit, race cars took the track with no steering wheels, pedals or drivers.
00:07All teams used the same race cars, so the competition came down to software.
00:12Teams from Germany, Italy and the United Arab Emirates competed to build the fastest autonomous racer.
00:19The teams that come here are all about winning.
00:22They are scientists, they look like scientists and they behave like scientists,
00:27but once the competition starts, it's about showing that they have the best software, the best code in the car
00:36and what they want is to win.
00:37And the choice of circuit adds another level of difficulty as mistakes at Emola can quickly turn into high-speed
00:43crashes.
00:44It's a non-forgiving circuit because any kind of mistake can really, really lead to a high-speed crash.
00:53So it's our utmost ambition not only to do our best, but not to crash the car while trying to
00:59achieve the limit.
01:00And the circuit is giving us quite a big challenge.
01:03Organizers believe putting AI on the racetrack can also help build public trust in the technology.
01:09The league addresses, let's say, one of the biggest challenges in developing autonomous vehicles, right,
01:17which is testing risky scenarios in a controlled environment at high speeds
01:23and against other vehicles that are traveling equally fast or even at different paces creating different outcomes
01:29that create data that you will naturally get in a controlled road environment where cars are usually traveling at, let's
01:36say, more conservative speeds.
01:38During the race, the engineers can only watch how the autonomous systems perform.
01:43When the race starts, it's hands off. And so this is basically just letting, you know, a child just do
01:49its thing
01:49and just looking at them and, you know, wishing them all the best, essentially hoping to be proud.
01:55But, of course, that can go wrong. Our AI driver can stumble. It's all possible.
02:00After 12 laps, a team from the United Arab Emirates took the win at Saturday's race.
02:06A team from the United Arab Emirates.
02:08A team from the United Arab Emirates.
02:08A team from the United Arab Emirates.
02:09A team from the United Arab Emirates.
02:09A team from the United Arab Emirates.
02:09A team from the United Arab Emirates.
02:09A team from the United Arab Emirates.
