Rumor: Apple latest bidder for Formula 1 race series If this is true then enjoy F1 now as flawed as it is, because driverless cars will be right around the corner.
I was thinking about this yesterday, right after the news showed a driver asleep in his Tesla on the freeway. With the push for self-driving cars being inevitable because it is being promoted as the way to eliminate crashes and deaths. What happens to motor sport when people are no longer able to drive their own cars. If Apple were able to pull off a driverless car series it would be a huge demonstration of the capability of the Apple car. Regardless Apple's eventual success at acquiring F1, bureaucrats in Washington, Tokyo and Brussels will soon see to it that "driving" is a thing of the past. Once your car becomes totally self-driving, the government will be able to determine not just how fast your car goes, but where and when it goes.
I also wonder (and worry) about the future of motorsport as well as collector cars in a world where automated transportation is the norm. Will private track clubs become more popular?
That we like it or not (and I don't), self-driving cars are the future. Some form of racing will still exist, but between the guys who engineer these self-driving vehicles, and no between drivers anymore. It will be the era of bespectacled boffins, computer nerds and clever electronicians, probably in while coats!!! That may appeal for a new audience ...
Some of the more organized racing sim series have a proper calendar, and the race has commentary too and they upload it to youtube etc. I don't think it'll die out soon, and F1 surely isn't stupid enough to make it self driving. Well...perhaps the rule makers are but any current team will just walk away immediately.
I'm all for it as long as each car gets unique driver coding; the Maldonado/De Cesaris bugs can sometime pop up.
I am not taking about the immediate future, but 100 years from now. Most of the people leading F1 teams are old men ...
I'm pretty certain that if someone were born today and grew up to have a career in F1 (or it's future equivalent), in 100 years from now, chances are they'll be just as dead as the "old men" leading the F1 teams right now!
The major manufacturers...Merc, Audi, Honda, FIAT, Toyota, VW, BMW, etc will insist that racing series showcase their self-driving technologies, just like they insist upon showcasing hybrid power units. Forget about sending your grandson to Alonso's karting school.
If there were no crashing and death f1 would have been gone a long time ago. We are animals. We crave sex and violence and heroes and villians and beauty and triumph.
