In April 2024, the inaugural event of the A2RL (Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League, the world's largest self-driving formula car racing series) received major media attention. According to a press release issued by the series, it has reached more than 11 million views internationally, with hundreds of thousands of online and tens of thousands of on-site viewers following the live coverage, as well as through the content that precedes and follows the series. Our own team also generated nearly 1 million views domestically through national TV appearances, radio spots, podcasts and social media. If you would like to get involved and be part of a truly exciting project, we welcome a range of opportunities to contact collaborative and supportive partners at humdalab@humda.hu .
The first race
This April, we competed against some of the world's leading engineering universities and research institutes, with competitors, many of whom had years of experience in previous self-driving competition series (Roborace and Indy Autonomous Challenge). The competition was preceded by a busy period of preparation, and although we started the challenge as a team of newcomers, the knowledge and hard work of our researchers and competition engineers paid off. We were proud to finish in 5th place in terms of lap time, making us the best rookie team. We have learned a lot from the previous season and we are back to work with renewed energy. Since then, our engineers have been working on new developments and we will soon be back at the famous Yas Marina circuit for the second season of the A2RL.
The competitive yet cohesive scientific community brought together by the competition aims to push the boundaries of self-driving mobility technologies, helping to unlock the potential of autonomous transport systems and promote their widespread deployment. Last year's field (University of Milan, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Constructor University, Technical University of Munich, Beijing Institute of Technology and Khalifa University as well as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore) has been joined by new teams for the second season. Among others, AiPEX Racing (USA), Aladin Innovation (France), SEVRUS Japan TGM Grand Prix (Japan) and the Technological Innovation Institute (United Arab Emirates - TII) have joined.
Applications are welcome: humdalab@humda.hu
