This quirky 1950s advertising message, posted line-by-line on a series of small roadside signs, isnt what Denis Sverdlov has in mind.

Sverdlov is CEO of Roborace, a company on the verge of putting driverless electric cars very fast and very smart electric cars on the world racing circuit. He doesnt plan on watching them go around corners and collide.

Sverdlov says his ultimate aim is to develop Artificial Intelligence technology for ordinary cars for ordinary people who just want to relax and read eBooks on the way to the supermarket. His goal is no crunch, no crash routine rides without harm to passenger or vehicle.

Not to cast doubt on his stated motive, but he seems to be having a lot of high-speed fun on the way. He and his team of designers, programmers and engineers have already tested driverless racing Robocars that can do 200 mph and avoid bumping into each other.

Their plan is to put 10 of these full-size, electric-powered machines in Roboraces on the same city street and road race courses being used today In piloted Formula E events around the world. And they aim to do it this year.

High-powered electric racers with cockpits occupied by humans have been dueling ever since the first big Formula E race in Beijing in September 2014. So its possible that the super-slick, futuristic Roborace machines without superstar drivers like Sbastien Olivier Buemi behind the wheel may, indeed, be burning up the course before Santas old-fashioned December 2017 sleigh ride.

And the racing will rapidly get better, Sverdlov says, because the Artificial Intelligence cars will begin to learn on their own, without prompting or help from people.

One example: In a crucial Roborace test, two vehicles were put on a track and allowed to race without human intervention. The competition eventually ended in a crash, but for a 20-lap competition it was a huge success. Whats really, extremely important, Sverdlov told an interviewer, is that those two cars started to understand each other and change their online path planner. In other words, their electronic control systems started behaving like human drivers.

But will these unmanned e-racers erase traditional auto sports? Will they mean the end of the Indianapolis 500 as civilization has come to know it? Will they put the brakes on the Formula One Grand Prix races of Monaco, Spain, Belgium and Malaysia? Will they drop the finish flag on NASCAR?

Robotics is advancing everywhere, driven by ever-improving Artificial Intelligence. It seems to be taking over more and more pieces of our lives, especially in the workplace.

AI, as its known, is posing a really big question: Are we going to outrace ourselves? Are we creating machines that ultimately will leave us behind?

Some philosophers and futurists believe this is the most fundamental challenge facing humanity today. They think its possible well lose control of our lives to machines, systems and automated networks that will take over nearly everything. They say artificial intelligence, while it can bring about dramatic improvement in the ways we do things, could also be our ultimate undoing.

And AI is coming on fast. Not quite 50 years ago, back in the 1970s, I took a tour of a Mack Trucks plant in Hagerstown and listened as our guide marveled at a stork-like machine jerking back and forth, spray-painting engine blocks. It did the job so much better than humans, he said, because a mindless, uncomplaining computer was running the show.

That contraption was primitive by todays standards. Entire manufacturing processes, from front to back, will soon be robotic and will soon be common.

Were seeing some resistance to all this in the growing popularity of maker and artisanal effort. Things made by artisans that is, human beings with their inconsistent, peculiar and even flawed natures are finding a foothold in the marketplace. But theyre often more expensive and harder to get. Will we put up with this inconvenience, or opt for the easy, from-the-automated-factory stuff?

Im not ready to join the Luddites, but Im thinking maybe its time to give horses and horse racing another look. As far as I know, you cant program a jockey and a thoroughbred. They dont go as fast as robocars, but I can understand them.

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Too much AI leaves a longing for the human touch - Frederick News Post (subscription)