Who needs drivers? Robo-racers and drone cars show us how it’s done at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Aug 10 , 2019

Samsung’s S Drone car, controlled remotely by a driver wearing virtual reality headset while using images provided by a series of 5G smartphones mounted on its roof impressed the crowds at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in England.

French racing driver’s Volkswagen ID R smashes 20-year mark at event’s hill course as Samsung’s remote-controlled S Drone and Roborace’ self-driving DevBot 2.0 unveiled

A mecca of car racing, the Goodwood Festival of Speed – an annual hill climb known for featuring historic motor racing vehicles held in the grounds of Goodwood House in West Sussex, England – brought motorheads together last month.

This year’s event saw French racing driver Romain Dumas complete the 1.6 mile (2.5km) course in a record time of 39.9 seconds in a prototype electric Volkswagen ID R racing car.

Dumas was also the winner of last year’s event in the same car.

French driver claims record on his return

German racing driver Nick Heidfeld (left), the former record-holder over the Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb course, chats to Romain Dumas, who now holds the record, at this year’s event in England.

The Volkswagen ID R, which made its racing debut only last year at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado Springs, in the United States, recorded two fast times at this year’s four-day Goodwood event.

On his first run, Dumas powered the vehicle over the winding uphill course to finish in 41.19 seconds. Two days later, he broke the old record of 41.6 seconds, which had been set by German racing driver Nick Heidfeld in the McLaren MP4/13 in 1999.

Yet who needs drivers?

This year’s event also organised its first official autonomous timed run, which saw the award for the fastest autonomous car won by DevBot 2.0, which has been developed by Roborace as a bespoke racing platform.