The FIA ​​​​will use AI to monitor whether the racing cars stay within the circuit during Formula 1 races.

The FIA ​​wants to use AI to monitor Formula 1 races. The technology will be tested for the first time at the final race of this season in Abu Dhabi. The intended use can best be compared to the goal line technology in football. There, an intelligent system helps the referees by checking whether a ball has rolled over the goal line or not.

In Formula 1, the cars have to stay within the agreed race track. Drivers who drive outside the lines (too often) will receive a time penalty. However, it is not always easy to tell whether a car has exceeded the limit or not. In addition, a uniform system such as goal line technology does not work because each race takes place on a different track with different curves and lines.

AI has to help. The FIA ​​hopes that the AI ​​will be able to detect from images whether the car’s pixels have drifted beyond the pixels of the line. AI should not only be more accurate, but also make the work of sports commissioners (referees) easier. In principle, a few stewards pay attention to the track restrictions, but in races with difficult corners the number of possible violations can be in the hundreds. At the race in Australia, four stewards had to assess almost 1,200 possible violations.

Focus on the doubtful cases

The FIA’s deputy race director compares the application of the technology to AI in healthcare. “You don’t want to use computer vision to diagnose cancer, but you want to use it to eliminate eighty percent of cases that are clearly not cancer, so that trained people can take a close look at the other twenty percent.” ” That’s the role too , which AI has to play in sports. Doubtful cases where the computer can clearly determine that there is no problem are classified so that folders can focus on the problem cases.

Formula 1 is traditionally a high-tech sport in which data plays an important role. The teams bring small data centers to every race where the telemetry is constantly analyzed. Sponsors and partners also often come from the technology world. Just think of AWS and Salesforce. Therefore, it is not surprising that the organization is also open to integrating new digital technologies such as AI.