Roborace is going to tackle the first-ever fully autonomous hillclimb at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed next month.

After demonstrations in various cities in recent years and being showcased at the Festival of Speed Future Lab at last year’s event, the technology firm will send Robocar, the fully automated electric racing car, to run uphill on the 1.16-mile track, guided only by automated systems. Additionally, visitors to the festival will be able to enjoy the hillclimb from the Robocar’s POV through an immersive VR experience at the Roborace booth.

Like most hillclimbs, the route at Goodwood is narrow and winding, while the presence of many turns, hills and trees means an RTK GPS signal alone is not enough for localisation. The Robocar is equipped with an NVIDIA Drive PX 2 computer for processing data and input from LiDAR, radar, GPS, ultrasonic, and camera sensors. These sensors are used to offer 360-degree machine vision for the car’s navigation through the hay bales, flint walls and forests of the Goodwood estate. The Robocar weighs 1,350kg and is powered by four 135kW electric motors, one to each wheel, generating over 500hp combined.