News
Robocar to attempt first self-driving hill climb at Goodwood Festival of Speed
Robocar, an autonomous purpose-built race car driven by an AI system, will soon be taking on its biggest challenge yet — the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed, which is set to be held this coming July 12-15 in West Sussex, England. In the event, Robocar would have to traverse the iconic hill climb’s 1.16-mile track on its own, using only its array of advanced sensors and AI to help it finish the challenging run.
Roborace, the company behind the creation of Robocar, had already proven that its autonomous driving technology could drive a high-speed vehicle around a race track. Roborace also believes that Robocar is equipped with just the right amount of tech to give it a good fighting chance to not only finish the hill climb event, but do so with authority.
Robocar is futuristic, and it definitely looks the part. The vehicle is designed by Daniel Simon, the man behind the designs of vehicles in blockbuster movies like Tron: Legacy and Oblivion. As featured in a recent video on Roborace’s official YouTube channel, Robocar is equipped with a variety of sensors to help it accomplish its task, including GPS, radar, LiDAR, ultrasonic sensors, and machine vision cameras that collect data around the car.
Robocar’s suite of sensors. [Credit: Roborace]
The vehicle’s tech extends to its interior, with Robocar being equipped with four 135 kW electric motors that produce 500 hp, as well as a 58 kWh battery. Powered by NVIDIA Drive PX 2 processors, the vehicle is capable of hitting speeds of up to 199 mph (320 kph). Robocar is also operated by an AI system provided by Arrival that decides how fast the car must go and how it should tackle the conditions of the track.
All this tech has to come together on July 12. Robocar, after all, would be the first autonomous race car to attempt the run, and Rod Chong, deputy CEO of Roborace, expects the vehicle to attract a lot of attention when it shows up to the event.
“We’re pretty sure when the car appears, people will freak out. We aren’t sleeping very well right now,” he said.
Roborace expects Robocar to have some challenges during the hill climb event, considering that the trees in the track are bound to block the GPS satellite GPS signals for the vehicle, which could compromise the car’s capability to map its position accurately. In order to get around this problem, Roborace developers have written a custom software for the event, which uses Robocar’s LiDAR sensors for real-time environment perception. The Roborace team also plans to run the autonomous car every morning during the Festival of Speed before the official events begin, in order to allow Robocar to scan the track and account for objects that could be different from the day before.
Chong stated that Roborace is not really looking to set any records in the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year. Instead, the team would be happy if Robocar can simply finish all three days of the event without any issues. Nevertheless, the deputy CEO noted that ultimately, they would like Robocar to have a good run with a good level of speed.
“We want to run to a good level of speed—it’ll be visually exciting, believe me,” he said.
The founder of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Charles Gordon-Lennox, the Duke of Richmond, however, is quite excited about the prospect of Robocar driving itself through his estate’s race track in high speeds.
“I can’t think of a more exciting way to celebrate our Silver Jubilee than to have Roborace attempt the first autonomous race car run up the hill. Roborace plays an important role in the future of mobility, challenging public perceptions and providing a platform to advance new technologies. This makes them the perfect partner to undertake this significant feat,” he said.
Here’s a brief video on the tech inside Robocar.
News
Tesla Model S completes first ever FSD Cannonball Run with zero interventions
The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end with no interventions.
A Tesla Model S has completed the first-ever full Cannonball Run using Full Self-Driving (FSD), traveling from Los Angeles to New York with zero interventions. The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end, fulfilling a long-discussed benchmark for autonomy.
A full FSD Cannonball Run
As per a report from The Drive, a 2024 Tesla Model S with AI4 and FSD v14.2.2.3 completed the 3,081-mile trip from Redondo Beach in Los Angeles to midtown Manhattan in New York City. The drive was completed by Alex Roy, a former automotive journalist and investor, along with a small team of autonomy experts.
Roy said FSD handled all driving tasks for the entirety of the route, including highway cruising, lane changes, navigation, and adverse weather conditions. The trip took a total of 58 hours and 22 minutes at an average speed of 64 mph, and about 10 hours were spent charging the vehicle. In later comments, Roy noted that he and his team cleaned out the Model S’ cameras during their stops to keep FSD’s performance optimal.
History made
The historic trip was quite impressive, considering that the journey was in the middle of winter. This meant that FSD didn’t just deal with other cars on the road. The vehicle also had to handle extreme cold, snow, ice, slush, and rain.
As per Roy in a post on X, FSD performed so well during the trip that the journey would have been completed faster if the Model S did not have people onboard. “Elon Musk was right. Once an autonomous vehicle is mature, most human input is error. A comedy of human errors added hours and hundreds of miles, but FSD stunned us with its consistent and comfortable behavior,” Roy wrote in a post on X.
Roy’s comments are quite notable as he has previously attempted Cannonball Runs using FSD on December 2024 and February 2025. Neither were zero intervention drives.
Elon Musk
Tesla removes Autopilot as standard, receives criticism online
The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders.
Tesla removed its basic Autopilot package as a standard feature in the United States. The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders, and shifts the company’s strategy towards paid Full Self-Driving subscriptions.
Tesla removes Autopilot
As per observations from the electric vehicle community on social media, Tesla no longer lists Autopilot as standard in its vehicles in the U.S. This suggests that features such as lane-centering and Autosteer have been removed as standard equipment. Previously, most Tesla vehicles came with Autopilot by default, which offers Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer.
The change resulted in backlash from some Tesla owners and EV observers, particularly as competing automakers, including mainstream players like Toyota, offer features like lane-centering as standard on many models, including budget vehicles.
That being said, the removal of Autopilot suggests that Tesla is concentrating its autonomy roadmap around FSD subscriptions rather than bundled driver-assistance features. It would be interesting to see how Tesla manages its vehicles’ standard safety features, as it seems out of character for Tesla to make its cars less safe over time.
Musk announces FSD price increases
Following the Autopilot changes, Elon Musk stated on X that Tesla is planning to raise subscription prices for FSD as its capabilities improve. In a post on X, Musk stated that the current $99-per-month price for supervised FSD would increase over time, especially as the system itself becomes more robust.
“I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve. The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (Unsupervised FSD),” Musk wrote.
At the time of his recent post, Tesla still offers FSD as a one-time purchase for $8,000, but Elon Musk has confirmed that this option will be discontinued on February 14, leaving subscriptions as the only way to access the system.
Tesla has initiated Cybertruck deliveries in a new region for the first time, as the all-electric pickup has officially made its way to the United Arab Emirates, marking the newest territory to receive the polarizing truck.
Tesla launched orders for the Cybertruck in the Middle East back in September 2025, just months after the company confirmed that it planned to launch the pickup in the region, which happened in April.
I took a Tesla Cybertruck weekend Demo Drive – Here’s what I learned
By early October, Tesla launched the Cybertruck configurator in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, with pricing starting at around AED 404,900, or about $110,000 for the Dual Motor configuration.
This decision positioned the Gulf states as key early international markets, and Tesla was hoping to get the Cybertruck outside of North America for the first time, as it has still been tough to launch in other popular EV markets, like Europe and Asia.
By late 2025, Tesla had pushed delivery timelines slightly and aimed for an early 2026 delivery launch in the Middle East. The first official customer deliveries started this month, and a notable handover event occurred in Dubai’s Al Marmoom desert area, featuring a light and fire show.
Around 63 Cybertrucks made their way to customers during the event:
First @cybertruck deliveries in the UAE 🇦🇪 pic.twitter.com/sN2rAxppUA
— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) January 22, 2026
As of this month, the Cybertruck still remains available for configuration on Tesla’s websites for the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Middle Eastern countries like Jordan and Israel. Deliveries are rolling out progressively, with the UAE leading as the first to see hands-on customer events.
In other markets, most notably Europe, there are still plenty of regulatory hurdles that Tesla is hoping to work through, but they may never be resolved. The issues come from the unique design features that conflict with the European Union’s (EU) stringent safety standards.
These standards include pedestrian protection regulations, which require vehicles to minimize injury risks in collisions. However, the Cybertruck features sharp edges and an ultra-hard stainless steel exoskeleton, and its rigid structure is seen as non-compliant with the EU’s list of preferred designs.
The vehicle’s gross weight is also above the 3.5-tonne threshold for standard vehicles, which has prompted Tesla to consider a more compact design. However, the company’s focus on autonomy and Robotaxi has likely pushed that out of the realm of possibility.
For now, Tesla will work with the governments that want it to succeed in their region, and the Middle East has been a great partner to the company with the launch of the Cybertruck.
Tesla Model S completes first ever FSD Cannonball Run with zero interventions
Tesla removes Autopilot as standard, receives criticism online
