this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Well, I suppose it depends on what people are out for. Like I said, if it's death that they're interested in, then, yeah, it would. But if they're okay with the crashes without the death, then I'd think that it'd be okay.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Sport requires human drama.

No fans would watch robots race, unless they were rooting for a human to win.

Just gamblers.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If robots were racing, people would be rooting for the remote pilot, or the team that built it, or the designers of the engine, etc...

Does no one remember Robot Wars or any spinoffs thereof?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Did they get NASCAR ratings?

And those battles were a quite a bit more action than oval track racing.

Maybe you would get figure 8 courses or mario kart tracks, but i do not believe that will keep viewers interested long term.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I dunno, maybe that's true. People like watching humans be in danger, that's true.

Monster Truck shows probably don't need humans though. We like watching stuff get crushed by big things even if humans aren't involved!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Not gonna lie, a pure engineering contest without the restrictions feel like a very cool idea. See what the true limits car engineers can achieve in a race if they didn't even need to consider driver safety. There exists a lot of restrictions on racing leagues for driver safety, as it should. But without drivers, you can pretty much throw all of it away.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

These types of events exist already. There's stuff like the DARPA races, "battle bots," VEX and LEGO robotic, RC car races, drone races, etc.

Regarding your point about removing limitations without a driver, currently anything that would harm a driver in a race is going to destroy the car too, so I can't imagine what would really change in this regard.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

There a lot of numbers higher than the 9Gs that are safe-ish and reasonable-ish for human drivers/pilots to experience regularly. A big bag of water with bones inside that likes to breathe doesn't take well to high levels of acceleration, eg. really fast turns.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Outside of planes, I don't know that any land or water based vehicle could pull 9Gs as you're limited by the traction of the tires and whatever physics effect boats on the water.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

F1 maxes out around 6/7Gs, but they're not solely limited by tire friction, they're effectively upside down planes that use their airfoils to get more traction. A lot of the difference is sideways Gs are harder. A pilot getting pushed down into their seat while banking through a turn can have more control than a driver getting pulled to the outside of the turn.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

But without drivers, you can pretty much throw all of it away.

I'm not sure you could - since spectator safety is considered more important than driver safety. (both are important)

So unless it's out in the middle of nowhere, with no spectators, no camerapeople, any pit crew would need to be in bunkers - just drones within a few kilometers of the track - it couldn't happen either and such and event would probably be less exciting than watching someone else play the F1 PC/Console game...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

These drivers understand the danger they're getting into when entering these races.

Why do you want to take their bodily autonomy away from them by preventing them from doing something that they love? I'd much rather take a wall at 200MPH in a race car than go out from a heart attack while taking my morning shit or getting T-boned on my commute to the office.