• tal@lemmy.today
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    12 hours ago

    In all seriousness, I think that there might be a good argument, in 2025, for converting races, be they car or boat or whatnot, to be remotely-driven.

    We’ve got the technology today.

    It’d permit for higher speeds and suchlike, and eliminate some requirements.

    The audience doesn’t get the drama of the driver maybe being killed in an accident, but by-and-large, blood sport has faded into history.

    There are clearly some people who watch racing for the crashes — but it’s possible to have the crashes and have vehicles potentially destroyed without the drivers being killed too.

      • tal@lemmy.today
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        15 hours ago

        Well, I suppose it depends on what people are out for. Like I said, if it’s death that they’re interested in, then, yeah, it would. But if they’re okay with the crashes without the death, then I’d think that it’d be okay.

        • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          Sport requires human drama.

          No fans would watch robots race, unless they were rooting for a human to win.

          Just gamblers.

          • otp@sh.itjust.works
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            14 hours ago

            If robots were racing, people would be rooting for the remote pilot, or the team that built it, or the designers of the engine, etc…

            Does no one remember Robot Wars or any spinoffs thereof?

            • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
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              14 hours ago

              Did they get NASCAR ratings?

              And those battles were a quite a bit more action than oval track racing.

              Maybe you would get figure 8 courses or mario kart tracks, but i do not believe that will keep viewers interested long term.

              • otp@sh.itjust.works
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                13 hours ago

                I dunno, maybe that’s true. People like watching humans be in danger, that’s true.

                Monster Truck shows probably don’t need humans though. We like watching stuff get crushed by big things even if humans aren’t involved!

          • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
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            14 hours ago

            Not gonna lie, a pure engineering contest without the restrictions feel like a very cool idea. See what the true limits car engineers can achieve in a race if they didn’t even need to consider driver safety. There exists a lot of restrictions on racing leagues for driver safety, as it should. But without drivers, you can pretty much throw all of it away.

            • ms.lane@lemmy.world
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              6 hours ago

              But without drivers, you can pretty much throw all of it away.

              I’m not sure you could - since spectator safety is considered more important than driver safety. (both are important)

              So unless it’s out in the middle of nowhere, with no spectators, no camerapeople, any pit crew would need to be in bunkers - just drones within a few kilometers of the track - it couldn’t happen either and such and event would probably be less exciting than watching someone else play the F1 PC/Console game…

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      14 hours ago

      Hahahah no. Humans haven’t changed. We still love to gawk at death and pain. We just don’t want to admit it directly.

      Rubber-neckers slowing down the highway for a crash on the other side aren’t doing it to make sure they are safe. They are hoping to spot some gore.

    • Goretantath@lemm.ee
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      12 hours ago

      If theres no risk of complete assholes burning up or crumpling into a pancake during a car race then the race sucks ass.