A2RL's Stephan Timpan on Advancing Autonomous Racing Tech
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00:00My name is Stéphane Timpan, I'm the CEO of Aspire and CEO of A2RS, the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League.
00:12Aspire is part of ATRC, the Advanced Technology Research Council of Abu Dhabi.
00:16We are the innovation agency for Abu Dhabi.
00:20Closing with our sister companies, TII and VentureOne,
00:24we try to develop as much as possible innovative technologies for the good of Abu Dhabi and the development of the country.
00:31A couple of years ago, we had the ambitious idea to use the racing environment and the Formula One-like environment
00:40to test autonomous technologies and to prove to the world that autonomy is going to a certain direction.
00:45So we took super Formula cars, which are sub-Formula One cars,
00:49we strapped away the human module, we put it inside an autonomous kit,
00:53and we invited eight of the most advanced research teams when it comes to autonomy and autonomous driving
01:00to compete in Yas Marina Circuit with autonomous cars.
01:04And the first race happened in April 2024, with eight cars competing.
01:09At least four of them together raced on the circuit.
01:13And from a technological perspective, it's a unique achievement.
01:20Well, the plan is to do it for the years to come.
01:24And not only with cars, but also with drones and other vehicles.
01:28The second season is starting in a few days from now in Suzuka in Japan,
01:32where in front of 150,000 spectators, we're going to have a race with a human car,
01:39with a professional driver, Daniel Kariart, against a machine.
01:44And this will be something very interesting.
01:46We did that already in April in Abu Dhabi.
01:48People were astonished by observing a machine against a human.
01:52We're doing it again in Suzuka.
01:54Then we will have a race again in April 2025.
01:58This time not with eight, but with 12 teams from all around the world.
02:01The interest is growing.
02:07A 2RL has a lot of implications.
02:09First, it helps convincing the people that autonomy is good for mobility.
02:15Today, people are skeptical when it comes to autonomous cars.
02:18They are afraid of what it means.
02:20But tomorrow, considering the amount of people we have in urban environments,
02:25autonomy is one of the key solutions we'll have to adopt.
02:28So it's important to work in developing this technology
02:30and make it acceptable for the grand public.
02:32By using autonomy solutions in extreme environments like racing,
02:38we build up the trust of the people in this technology.
02:46To support the change going forward, by all means,
02:51our target is to work specifically in building up technologies
02:56that are going to change the life of the people.
02:58The first thing is to create in the UAE the ecosystem and the industry to support that,
03:04but also to give solutions to the world that can adopt.
03:08While technology needs speed, needs funds, needs long-term commitment,
03:14we have all of it in Abu Dhabi.
03:16The leadership has proven in the last years the long-term view,
03:20the ability to invest in a vision and keep this vision ahead,
03:25even if sometimes things go up and down.
03:28So I think this is what Abu Dhabi is unique for, the ability to commit in the long term.
03:33Abu Dhabi is a place to do business.
03:35It's easy to do business.
03:36The system is put in place to facilitate companies to come and invest.
03:40We try to create the best ecosystem to attract industrials
03:44and to attract innovators to work in Abu Dhabi.