Autonomous car avoids hitting dog in first unofficial Roborace

Published Feb. 20, 2017 11:07 a.m. ET

Samuel Reiman

Two autonomous cars took place in the inaugural Roborace last weekend ahead of the Buenos Aires ePrix.

While the Roborace series has yet to officially start up, Saturday's event marked the first time two DevBot cars had competed on track at the same time.

One of the DevBot cars completed the race successfully, while the other crashed out after taking a turn too quickly.

However, things could have been much uglier, as a dog ran out on course during the race. Fortunately, the cars were able to avoid it.

https://twitter.com/roborace/status/833030665608249349

As for the crash, Roborace’s chief marketing office Justin Cooke sees it as a learning opportunity.

"One of the cars was trying to perform a maneuver, and it went really full-throttle and took the corner quite sharply and caught the edge of the barrier," Cooke told the BBC.

"It's actually fantastic for us because the more we see these moments the more we are able to learn and understand what was the thinking behind the computer and its data.

"The car was damaged, for sure, but it can be repaired. And the beauty is no drivers get harmed because... there is no-one in them."

The Roborace cars are expected to be back out on track ahead of the Mexico City ePrix on April 1.