Lucas di Grassi announced as Roborace CEO

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Formula E Champion Lucas di Grassi has been announced as the new CEO of autonomous racing series Roborace, following a year as a development advisor.

Announced at the IAA Frankfurt, di Grassi takes over from Denis Sverdlov, founder of Roborace.

Speaking at the event, Lucas said that Roborace will pioneer both road and race technologies-

“We want to take Roborace where motorsport cannot go, focusing the platform on future road-relevant autonomous technology,” said di Grassi.  “The future of mobility is autonomous, that’s an industry consensus now.”

It might seem counter-intuitive for a driver to take charge of an automotive series but di Grassi says Roborace augments rather than usurps traditional racing-

“In the same way, I believe that motorsport is about the driver, who is the best human being behind the wheel. I want to develop the Roborace series to be complimentary to traditional motorsport, and not to replace it. We invite the OEMs, suppliers, technology companies and universities to use our platform to showcase their technology and intellectual capacity in driverless systems. With the technology evolving so fast we must remain flexible on the events, races and challenges we are promoting.”

Sverdlov is stepping aside to work on other projects including an automated mail delivery system while still remaining key to Roborace development. He said  “We are thrilled that Lucas has agreed to come on board in an official capacity as Roborace continues to grow.  He brings a wealth of knowledge from other motorsport competitions he has developed and evolved and we are privileged to benefit from his experience,”

Known as a technology enthusiast and “professor” throughout the formula E Paddock, it comes as no surprise that he and Roborace work well together – Sverdlov praised the partnership as  “Lucas truly understands the importance of what Roborace can achieve – making our roads smarter and safer by sharing the benefits of A.I. to advance everything from driver assistance to collision avoidance, security technologies to full autonomy.”

Roborace will be running events to develop the racing capacity of the series alongside Formula E’s Season 4 meets.

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Images courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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