Mark Preston's illustrious career in motorsports is a testament to his passion, innovation, and leadership. From his early beginnings in Australia, where he developed a love for cars while working on a farm, to his groundbreaking achievements in Formula 1 with Arrows Grand Prix and McLaren, Preston has consistently pushed the boundaries of engineering and technology. His entrepreneurial spirit led to the rapid establishment of the Super Aguri Formula 1 team, built from scratch in just 100 days. Transitioning to Formula E, Preston played a pivotal role in its inception, leading Team Aguri and DS TECHEETAH to multiple championships. Now, as the motorsport director at Lola Cars, he continues to drive innovation with a focus on sustainability, underscored by a new partnership with Yamaha for Formula E. Mark Preston's journey is a remarkable blend of technical expertise and visionary leadership, making him a significant figure in the evolution of motorsports.
Mark Preston, currently the Motorsport Director at Lola Cars, shares his inspiring journey in the racing world. From his early days working with Formula Fords in Australia to leading teams in Formula 1 and Formula E. His passion for motorsport has been a constant throughout his career, driving him to innovate and adapt to new challenges. He discusses his latest venture, bringing Lola Cars back to motorsport after a decade, in collaboration with Yamaha, to compete in the next Formula E season. Preston highlights the excitement of this project, describing it as an opportunity to push the boundaries of electrified motorsport while forming a new team dynamic with engineers, drivers, and partners.
Throughout the interview, Preston emphasizes the importance of passion, perseverance, and collaboration in motorsport. He shares insights into the challenges of pioneering in Formula E, the benefits of electrification, and the technical evolution of racing. Mark also parallels motorsport and other industries, illustrating how marginal gains, teamwork, and innovative thinking can create impactful outcomes. With his eyes set on the upcoming Formula E season, Preston’s enthusiasm for driving progress, both on and off the track, underscores his commitment to advancing motorsport technology and fostering a culture of excellence.
The first race for Lola in over a decade at São Paulo Fórmula E
As you all well know, AI tools are moving forward at a great rate of knots, so its worth saying that this post is being created in Oct 2024, because this might be out of date in months if not weeks!
If you haven’t had a try of Google’s NotebookLM, its definitely worth experimenting with.
In this particular case, I’ve taken all the publicly available Podcast that I have appeared on (links on the site), and have uploaded them all into a “notebook”.
The transcriptions from YouTube videos were used as input for the NoteBook, along with direct transcriptions from the podcast. When direct transcriptions were not possible due to the podcast being aired on a different platform like Spotify.
🚀 Thrilled to share my journey in motorsport through the “How to Become an F1 Technical Director”interview. I reflected on my transition from a mechanical engineer in Australia. This journey led me to work with some of the top teams in Formula 1 and Formula E. It has been an incredible experience.
The key takeaways for anyone pursuing a motorsport career are important. 💡 Specialization matters—find what you’re passionate about and excel in it. 💡 Adaptability is crucial—the road is rarely straight, but you can navigate the twists and turns with the right mindset. 💡 Don’t be afraid to take risks. The opportunities that seem uncertain may shape your career the most.
I started my journey with Arrows Grand Prix. Then, I worked with McLaren Racing. Now, I am leading at Lola Cars. I’ve learned that persistence and passion are key ingredients to success. Excited to see what’s next as we gear up for another exciting Formula E season! ⚡
In 1976 I was 8 years old, living on a farm in Kiacatoo, outside Condobolin in central New South Wales, and… into trucks. For Christmas that year I was given my first LP: ’24 Great Truck Drivin’ Songs’. It even had CB Trucker Talk code words on the back to decode the “secret” trucker talk, and this led me to build myself a side band radio to listen to the truck drivers in the vicinity!
Being on a farm in the wheat country meant a lot of trucks and I would often be found sketching ‘18 wheelers’ (see CB code for a 5-axle truck) with chrome and spotlights adorning the cab and bull bars. We would often go to the Farm Days in local towns to check out equipment with my dad and uncle to see what new ideas were available and admire the shiny rigs and monster tractors that are common in the outback of Australia.
Each year in the harvesting season, when not in school, I would join my dad and grandfather on the trip to the grain silo in the centre of the town, about 30 miles away. We would carry around 10-15 tonnes of wheat in each load.
My dad remembers his favourite story of me being an earnest young man. He was driving the F600 with a dog trailer fully loaded with 13 tonnes of grain, from the farm to the wheat silo in Condobolin.
Pictured: My father with the multi-purpose F600 Ford with a 500 gallon tank with optional tipping tray and cattle pen
Given the angle of the truck on a crossroads, he asked me if there were any cars coming.
I replied: “No cars.” So he set off changing through the gears of the 8-speed gearbox with the fully loaded truck.
“But there is a truck”, I said literally
“£(%*£@£(£*£!@”, was the reply… But we made it to the silo and he learned to ask very literal questions from then on.
Fixing the Staines Truck
One school holiday my cousins and I decided to fix a truck to keep us busy. We found an old Comer truck pictured below, that my uncle had taken the crane off the back and onto a new truck chassis. The old Comer had stood around for many years and was not operational.
Over the next few days we would walk into my uncle’s shed and ask how things worked. After vacuuming out the spiders and ants we tried to start it with the keys that were in the ignition. No joy.
First question: How do engines start?
“You will need some fuel and a battery.”
“How does a battery work and why would this one be broken”, we pointed to the truck battery we had brought into the main workshop. “Be careful with the battery acid.”
After learning about the water in a lead acid battery and hooking it up for the night on a trickle charge we left to create makeshift seats out of bean bags and a chair for the driver!
Next, the fuel tank
Next was a fuel tank, as you can see in the picture, a 44 gallon drum, NOT strapped down to the chassis! We had to learn how to prime a fuel pump and then finally, bump start the truck with a tractor. Oh, and I think we also had to learn how to drive at the same time, as there were multiple jobs to be done!
Pictured: Mark in the driver’s seat with sisters and cousins
As we sped past the main shed, my uncle looked out and noticed that not only did we not have the fuel tank strapped down, but we also had an exhaust which did not have a muffler, and in the middle of Australia, that is how bushfires get started!
All good fun!
Pictured: Tractor used for bump starting our truck adventure
From driving to designing
After university, I started work designing dangerous goods trails for a company called Tieman in Melbourne. My first vehicle was a hydrogen peroxide tanker, my first experience at designing a Class A pressure vessel. The second one was a bitumen tanker. I really enjoyed that experience as I travelled around with some of the truck drivers understanding what they – as the customer – really needed and made updates to the design of the tanks accordingly.
Pictured: Tieman bitumen tanker
Little did I know that I would get back to trucks through a career in Formula E and Formula 1 and bring that technology to the autonomous trucking industry with StreetDrone. StreetDrone is pioneering the commercialisation of yard logistics in the trucking sector with our highly successful project at Nissan’s Sunderland plant where we work closely with Hitachi Vantec, Nokia, BP, and the North Eastern Automotive Alliance. I’ve come full circle, only now with technology that we couldn’t have imagined in the 70s, like teleoperation, electric powertrains and, of course, autonomy.
Move the Ball: Mark Preston, Pushing the Boundaries in Motorsports and Beyond.
Mark Preston’s illustrious career in motorsports is a testament to his passion, innovation, and leadership. From his early beginnings in Australia, where he developed a love for cars while working on a farm, to his groundbreaking achievements in Formula 1 with Arrows Grand Prix and McLaren, Preston has consistently pushed the boundaries of engineering and technology.
His entrepreneurial spirit led to the rapid establishment of the Super Aguri Formula 1 team, built from scratch in just 100 days. Transitioning to Formula E, Preston played a pivotal role in its inception, leading Team Aguri and DS TECHEETAH to multiple championships. Now, as the Motorsport Director at Lola Cars, he continues to drive innovation with a focus on sustainability, underscored by a new partnership with Yamaha for Formula E.
Mark Preston’s journey is a remarkable blend of technical expertise and visionary leadership, making him a significant figure in the evolution of motorsports.
If you want to understand how StreetDrone came to be, simply visit their office courtyard around the end of June every summer.
The StreetDrone Summer Party has become legendary in the tech industry in the UK. In this little corner of Oxford, you’ll find autonomous vehicles running nonchalantly up and down the road outside the StreetDrone HQ, showing off their very-much-here technology, while inside the courtyard is a treasure trove of workshops, coding spaces, simulation rigs and, of course, the office bar.
Around the office space, you’ll notice an intriguing blend of motorsport paraphernalia, carbon fibre tubs leaning casually against the wall and empty podium champagne bottles standing next to proud championship winners trophies.
But this isn’t quite a racing team – at least not in the traditional sense.
Mike Potts and Mark Preston are the co-founders of StreetDrone. Both have an appetite for adventure and entrepreneurship, starting their lifelong friendship after meeting in Australia as teenagers.
The first time we ever worked together was actually on a paper round when we were in our early teens
Mark Preston
Cycling the streets of Canterbury in Melbourne, the two dreamed of interesting ways to use technology, especially early stage home computers, to have a real impact on the world – from learning how to create 3D graphics on a BBC Micro to building a rudimental solar heating rig for Mark’s parents pool.
DIVERGENCE_
Mike returned to the UK in 1985, and after dropping out at his first attempt at university – in his own often-repeated words, “I would say I’m a failed, wannabe engineer at heart” – his second attempt, at Oxford Brookes University, became the catalyst for his fledgling business career to take off.
At the start of his final year of study he went to Lloyds Bank on Oxford high street, convincing the business manager to loan him £1000, which bought a “very second-hand” van, allowing him to do deliveries and assemblies of flat-pack furniture for the Futon Company, among others. This was a turning point for Mike, proving to himself he could make something from nothing and generate a good profit at the same time, all while completing his university degree.
Meanwhile in Australia, Mark attended the prestigious Monash University and, frustrated at its largely theoretical teachings, decided to additionally gain practical experience in the proven motorsport training ground of Formula Fords with Borland Racing Developments. Designing and manufacturing the successful Spectrum FF1600 machine, Mark also enjoyed spells with General Motors Holden, working with pioneering crash analysis simulations.
But it was his work with Tom Walkinshaw Racing’s Holden Special Vehicles outfit that led him to the UK and into Formula 1. When the organisation bought the Arrows Formula 1 Team, Mark followed to the UK in 1996.
STARS ALLIGNING_
Mike used his skills and experience gained from his delivery business to stand out when he applied for a role with Coca-Cola in 1998, earning the job and the company van that allowed him to regularly see best friend Mark in Oxford, sowing the seeds for StreetDrone’s future.
However, both had industries to transform and companies to lead before reaching autonomous vehicles.
INDIVIDUAL SUCCESSES_
Winning on Track
When Arrows folded in 2002, Mark moved to McLaren and linked up with the famous Adrian Newey, overseeing stress analysis, composite design, materials, and vehicle laboratories.
Then came a greater challenge, joining forces with Aguri Suzuki to create an F1 team in just 100 days, working as the Founder and Technical Director of the new team: the Super Aguri Honda F1 Team. This is now a story infamous among the employees of StreetDrone, told in hushed tones around the campfire.
While short-lived in F1, it was a partnership that was revived in 2013 when Mark headed up one of the first-ever Formula E Teams, Team Aguri, as one of only 10 founding Team Principals, in leading a motorsport revolution as it embraced e-mobility.
Mark would leave an incredible impact in Formula E, becoming the most successful Team Principal in the series as it evolved into DS-Techeetah, winning 3 Drivers’ and 2 Teams’ World Championships.
Speaking to Mark now, he’s incredibly humble about his achievements on-track and is clearly striving for the next level in performance, always. Optimisation is the game and Mark is pretty good at winning.
Transforming the World of Data
Mike would begin working with pioneering technologies, joining the fledgling Expedia in 2000 as just the seventh employee on the books in the UK.
Heavyweights Microsoft pushed Expedia forward, helping Mike put himself front and centre in the world of e-commerce, not only in the UK, but across Expedia’s fledgling European operations.
It was the perfect grounding for Mike to launch his second business, and in 2006, Elisa Interactive Group was formed, focussing on data analytics and the optimisation of ecommerce sites across the UK, Spain and Portugal.
After seven years, and clients ranging from Zara to Sky.com, Elisa Interactive was acquired by multinational media agency Havas and Mike became the Chief Data Officer of Havas’s operations in the UK.
CONVERGENCE_
Improving the Lives of People in Cities
Both feeling they needed new challenges, there was the burning desire to be at the vanguard of pioneering technology, and a global event helped them focus on their next move.
The Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption, which covered much of Europe in ash clouds and grounded flights, led to Mike spending five days in Oxford with Mark, during which time they dreamed big.
All day they would analyse global technology companies, before unwinding in the local pub in the evening, laying the groundwork for what would later become their move into the autonomous technology sector.
In 2015, rising to the challenge of future transportation and mobility in Oxfordshire, Mike and Mark co-founded the MobOx Foundation. They teamed up with Oxford University, Oxford Brookes University, and the Oxfordshire County Council, providing the perfect opportunity for their shared knowledge of data, motorsport, automotive, and business to dovetail. This proved pivotal in the founding of StreetDrone one year later.
StreetDrone is Born
From there, the pair never looked back. In 2016, it was the turn of Oxbotica, an autonomous vehicle software company, who requested that Mike, Mark, and future StreetDrone Technical Director Ian Murphy proposed an autonomous-ready vehicle solution: a robotised Renault Twizy concept was built to be used as an autonomous software test platform for the road by Oxbotica.
While Oxbotica decided to not go with the Oxford based solution, other potential clients saw the genius in using the Twizy. The duo pushed forward, utilising their thick contacts book, they quickly sold their first vehicle to the successful Cambridge startup Wayve.
Mike’s extensive background in marketing, commercial, and entrepreneurship, combined with Mark’s engineering expertise and experience in building high-performance teams, provides a world-class leadership team. With dozens of potential customers and the makings of a growing business, the partners set up shop in 2017 with an office in Oxford to develop their technologies from the ground up.
GROWING_
Feet on the Ground, Shoot for the Stars
Fast forward six years and this growing team (now over 35 people) in Oxford is working to change the world using its autonomous solutions. From grassroots motorsport to the future of autonomous vehicles, Mike and Mark share an insatiable appetite for creating new technologies with real applications – and now it’s paying off.
Speak to Mike about the company he has built and it’s clear – he wants StreetDrone to be the best place in the world to work.
Just look around at the community from industry that gathers at their Summer Party every year. As the team moves from success to success (with over 30 autonomous vehicles in the wild and recently completing the first autonomous deliveries at Nissan’s car plant in Sunderland), the founders manage to revel in that sweet-spot of startups: growing at a fast pace and retaining a sense of fun, empathy, and excitement for adventure.
From a paper round in Australia, to scaling both digital and four-wheeled worlds of data and motorsport, to transforming the communities of Oxfordshire and now deploying real near-term autonomy, Mike and Mark have built something remarkable together.
Lola to enter all-electric ABB FIA Formula E World Championship with technical partner Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. in an agreement to develop and supply high-performance electric powertrains.
The partnership is the first project in the motorsport brand’s bid to re-establish itself as a leading motorsport design and engineering group
Lola will be focusing on sustainable motorsport in three key areas: electrification, hydrogen and sustainable fuels and materials.
Lola Cars has announced today that it is returning to global motorsport in a multi-year technical partnership with Yamaha Motor Company and will enter the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship from Season 11.
The iconic, globally renowned motorsport brand, which has more than 500 championship wins, is working with Yamaha to develop and supply a powertrain to compete in the world’s first all-electric, single seater race series. With track racing deep in the DNA of both Lola Cars and Yamaha, this new technology partnership not only provides an opportunity to join the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship as it moves to the GEN3 Evo platform for the 2024/25 season but also creates opportunities across global motorsport and in the broader zero emissions transportation space.
Mark Preston, Motorsport Director, Lola Cars Ltd “We are thrilled to confirm our entry in Formula E. For us, this is more than just an opportunity to return Lola to the track, it’s also a fantastic platform for technological development.
“Lola Cars has a decorated history of success in chassis and aerodynamic design. This project will allow us to create a unique electrified platform with a software focus at its core to provide a basis for Lola’s wider plans in defining the future of motorsport technology.”
Mark Preston – Motorsport Director – Lola Cars
The partnership is the first of several major projects planned to re-establish the British company as an industry leader in sustainable engineering and motorsport, strategically focusing on three areas of electrification, hydrogen and sustainable fuels and materials.
Till Bechtolsheimer, Chairman, Lola Cars Ltd “We are incredibly excited to be partnering with the Yamaha Motor Company as we enter the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. To be selected by one of the most innovative OEMs in the world to partner on a project of this significance is a testament to the caliber of the team that we have been building at Lola.
“The focus of this project is squarely around technological development in which Lola is fully invested. We see the highly efficient 350 kW electric powertrain that underpins the manufacturer’s perimeter in Formula E, as a cornerstone technology with exciting applications across many forms of topflight international motorsport in the coming years.”
Heiji Maruyama, Managing Executive Officer and Director, Yamaha Motor co., ltd.“Yamaha Motor Company is accelerating the research and development of various technologies that contribute to sustainability. As the technical partner, we hope to acquire more advanced energy management technologies through the highest level of electric racing in Formula E. We also share Lola’s new philosophy of sustainable motorsport and we are very pleased and honored to form this partnership with them.”
Since acquiring Lola Cars in 2022, Bechtolsheimer and his team have been developing their program from a new global headquarters in Silverstone, UK, building on the legacy of the most successful manufacturer of customer race cars of all time.
Founded by Eric Broadly in 1958, Lola Cars has designed and produced nearly 5000 race cars spanning 400 different model types, gaining unparalleled success in motorsport championships around the world, including IndyCar, Le Mans, Formula 1, Can-Am, Formula 3000, Formula 5000, A1GP, Formula Ford and Touring Cars.
This partnership continues Lola Cars’ longstanding prominence in Japan. Lola Cars has a long history of involvement in Japanese motorsport, primarily in what is now known as the Japanese Super Formula Championship, winning 13 Championships in two decades from 1987 when it was known as the All Japan F3000. Lola has also notably partnered with Japanese manufacturers to create iconic vehicles across multiple racing disciplines including Formula 1, IndyCar and Le Mans.
Founded in 1958, Lola Cars is the most successful manufacturer of customer race cars of all time and has more than 500 championship wins globally. It is working to become an industry leader in sustainable engineering and motorsport, focusing on three areas of electrification, hydrogen and sustainable fuels and materials. Lola Cars will be competing in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship from Season 11.
In 1999, during my tenure as Head of R&D at Arrows Grand Prix, I embarked on a journey to enhance the performance of our F1 cars. At that juncture, genetic algorithms emerged as the preferred tool, particularly in fast trading software. Despite operating on Silicon Graphics visual workstations, which were relatively powerful but nothing like what is available nowadays, we could conduct many runs. We employed these algorithms primarily to analyse tyre models and seek other optimisation strategies. Interestingly, the learning often highlighted inaccuracies within our models. For instance, a particular simulation model would consistently suggest a 100% front weight on the car, indicating an error in the model that may have caught out a few teams over the years with unrealistic targets! These were the early days of using computers with limited power and brute force algorithms.
When I moved to McLaren F1, I was astounded by the wealth of “embedded knowledge” the team possessed, a term used in MBA circles to mean that they’ve meticulously documented everything. To make this vast reservoir of knowledge more easily accessible to new engineers, I considered implementing an “on-prem” Google server. The idea was that little nuggets of wisdom only known to a few people could be shared across the company. The idea is that knowledge, when harnessed collaboratively, can be greater than the sum of its parts. Now, imagine if we could enhance the learning model of ChatGPT by incorporating this internal knowledge derived from over three decades of racing expertise into speeding up the dissemination of knowledge and ideas (the first version of this article was prepared in May 2023, MS Co-Pilot and Google’s Bard are solving precisely this at the moment).
Fast forward to the Super Aguri F1 team. Our radios were not at the level of the other teams, so we decided to experiment with increasing the quality of our communication with the drivers. We agreed that one solution was to move the pitwall engineering (prat perch) to the air-conditioned, quiet, controlled environment of the engineering truck behind the pits. This increased the communication quality and was a precursor to thinking more about the now standard “Mission Controls” back at base in F1 and FE, where engineers can work in a quieter controlled environment. This decoupling of tasks is a powerful concept. Obviously, “you can’t hammer a nail over the internet,” so specific tasks need to stay on the ground, at the track, but many jobs can be done remotely.
The result was the now famous run in between Anthony Davidson and a beaver while running 3rd at the Montreal Grand Prix in 2007. With engineers positioned in the truck behind the pit garages and Anthony having to dive into the pits at the last minute, the mechanics were left surprised as the TV talked about him coming into the pitlane! An example of the right intent, but not the right outcome!
Another solution to our communication problem was to think about texting. I saw the Technical Director of F1, Charlie Whiting, in Monaco on the morning of the F1 race to discuss solutions. Car communications are restricted to radio, but I argued that if our driver had had a hearing impairment, that would not be entirely fair, hence the need for text-based communications. Charlie agreed to look at a proposal. We never did implement the concept due to the requirement to redesign the steering wheel, but I have continued to think about communications and ideas that might solve problems.
Since I started looking at genetic algorithms in 1999, rapid advances in computing power, including GPUs and TPUs, enabled machine learning to evolve significantly. This computational growth allowed for training complex models on large datasets, leading to powerful AI like GPT-3 and GPT-4 and ushering in a new era of AI innovation. The astonishing rise of ChatGPT and large language models or LLMs is the latest thing and is changing by the week, if not the day at the moment (this article will be out of date by the time you read it potentially, first written May 2023!).
Could the LLM be trained on a smaller data set and more clearly communicate with a driver? My current understanding of these LLMs is that the better “prompt engineering” fed into the model, with the best context, the better the answers and the more concise the results. If you notice that when you type in a question to Bing now, it first makes the prompt more straightforward, then feeds it to the model. The more you narrow down the context, the better the answer. Here’s a simple example: Me on the prompt line: “Please write a concise radio communication for an F1 driver with bad radio quality to ask them to come into the pit lane for new tyres.”
A silly, small example, but it shows how it can be used. I have seen many times in the heat of battle where we engineers make mistakes. The more scenario planning and fast decision-making possible, the fewer mistakes. For example, ChatGPT could prepare radio communications and pop-up ideas for a race engineer based on preconceived knowledge from listening to “Mission Control” conversations or info coming from the TV!
These are only simple examples, and every day, I am sure you will all think of more. And by the time this article comes out, more API integrations, private learning model implementation and a host of tools have become available. I will watch with interest how this all begins to play out and would love to hear any ideas from engineers!
PS: this article was written with the aid of ChatGPT4
Reposted after the original letter published Jan 11, 2020, on Medium
Mark Preston has travelled through the world of the Australian automotive industry to Formula 1 and on to Formula E and autonomous vehicles, constantly considering the future of his favourite subject — cars. The race team he leads — DS TECHEETAH Formula E Team — are the current title holders in Formula E and his StreetDrone business presented autonomous vehicles at the CES Technology world fair this week in Las Vegas.
Dear Prime Minister,
I’m an Aussie who grew up only dreaming about V8’s and going fast, but on my recent visit home from the UK for Christmas, I was shocked by the extent of global climate change as I drove to Sydney and back for New Years celebration by the harbour. My shock was matched by the surprise that while the country burns, our government backs yet more coal mining and gives no thought to the manifest alternatives our country has at its fingertips.
As we drove along the Hume Highway stopping at my childhood tourist stops like the Big Koala, Big Merino, Ned Kelly and the Dog on the Tuckerbox, we were blown away by the sheer amount of smoke that was hanging in the 40-degree heat that soaked the countryside. A red/pink sun beat down on the dry land below as we tried to take photos to do justice of this apocalypse.
I hadn’t realised until I did a Google searched for “are these fires as big as previous”, did I find an article on the Guardian Australia website answering those exact questions. I didn’t appreciate while working out of the country that Australia was going to open the world’s biggest coal mine while its own countryside was burning. I do accept that expanding economies like India have the right to also grow, however, we could develop technology around energy supply in parallel, using the earnings from those resources.
A green new deal has been proposed recently, but yet time after time people and government focus on short term gains ignoring the longer term.
Why are we not embracing the competitive advantage that our country enjoys with vast amounts of natural resource and thinking about the endless possibilities that this provides for the future generations?
I moved from gas-guzzling F1 to the new Formula electric (Formula E) race series because it offers a pathway to change how we move & travel as a society. Of course, electric vehicles are only zero emissions at the point of use and can rely on electricity grids powered by carbon. Greening the grid is therefore as important a part of the solution as electric mobility.
But there is hope, especially here in Australia as solar energy is something we have in abundance, as well as many brilliant young engineers who could power our national endeavour to take a global leadership position in clean energy. Our ‘over-supply’ of solar energy has the potential to be converted to hydrogen or ammonia to power new transport solutions and we have at our fingertips the potential to move up the supply chain and be a leading supplier of energy without being the world’s coal mine.
My own story convinces me this ambition is possible. I was born in the Ford town of Geelong and quickly fell in love with the automotive industry. I moved to the UK and joined McLaren Formula 1, and in time, set up my own F1 team, but always had a weather eye on a sustainable future and so I supported the spin-out of an electric motor company from Oxford University and in time, I built my own Formula E team. Today Formula E is in its 6th season, enjoys the commitment of ten carmakers and has changed the world both in racing, but is also having a transformative impact on the development of new personal mobility solutions too.
It is not important to revive the automotive industry in Australia. We have advantages in this country and can focus on these strengths; natural resources must be our focus and amongst these agriculture and energy! But we must also look at autonomous driving systems. I am focusing on the potential future of the mobility business which will be dominated by the concepts of connected, autonomous, shared and electric vehicles, and so should you.
History has shown time and time again that long term thinking provides huge gains economically and socially in the future. In his seminal book on the competitiveness of nations, Michael Porter wrote: “A nation’s competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade” and with the current environmental backdrop, we have two compelling reasons to innovate our way out of a crisis.
This occurs when competition is opened up, with governments opening and supporting innovation in industries that play to the strengths of the country with goals like becoming the world leader in off-highway autonomy, long haul hydrogen vehicles, mining trucks and agriculture and solar power delivering sustainable energy carriers using hydrogen and ammonia concepts.
Australia, wake up to the coming changes in global climate change and embrace the competitive advantages that this fine land has given us and let’s get a grand green new tech deal done!
Autonomous technology has the power to redefine driving, both on the race track and in our daily lives, states Mark Preston, Team Principal of the Team Aguri Formula E squad
Autonomous vehicles have been a regular feature in the headlines over the past year as the technology has been refined and global brands such as Google, Apple and Tesla have pioneered their own approaches to commercialising its wide array of applications.
While the technology is in its infancy, the rate of development and investment in this burgeoning market is impressive. The UK government has pledged £100m to the development of the industry, which is expected to create 320,000 jobs by 2030, while both Tesla and Google plan to have their first models on the market by 2020.
However teething problems remain, as highlighted by 14 accidents that Google’s car has suffered in the last six years, in which time is has covered some 1.9 million miles of testing.
Mark Preston, Team Principal of Team Aguri – a race squad competing in the all-electric Formula E series – believes that autonomous vehicles have a promising future, and that motorsport may hold the key to unlocking its full potential.
Showcasing ideas to the world
“Motorsport is a great testing ground. I see Formula E as a prototyping competition for autonomous vehicles and other technologies,” comments Preston.
“It’s a great place to experiment and showcase new ideas, and bring them to the attention of the world in a controlled environment where people can gain confidence that they are safe.”
Preston’s comments aren’t without president. In recent years motorsport has been responsible for the development of kinetic energy recovery and smaller, more efficient engines, which are becoming commonplace in today’s road cars. Other technologies that have a motorsport lineage include four wheel drive, traction control and even rear view mirrors are now considered standard.
While some are hesitant about taking the purity away from motorsport, Preston is quick to assert that applications of autonomous technology need not impact on racing: “We don’t want to take away the skill of the driver, but there are a number of times in a race when technology does not dominate the performance or outcome of the race, such as pit stops and following the safety car.”
“’Follow me’ technology has already been developed by BMW and Jaguar and we could easily have race cars following the i8 safety car in Formula E. The Toyota Hybrid ran completely on electric power while in the pitlane during this year’s Le Mans 24 hours, which could have been implemented autonomously as soon as the driver crossed the pitlane entry line. This could spell the end to unsafe releases, as the pitlane would follow a set of rules.”
Preston believes such an approach will be crucial to increasing public acceptance of such innovations, while promoting new collaborations between academia, race teams and car manufacturers.
Sustainability through autonomy
Team Aguri has formed a partnership with the MobOx Foundation – a ‘living laboratory’ in Oxford that runs studies into the innovative technologies that will shape the future of our cities – to better to understand where such inventions first enter daily life.
“Studies so far, supported by Innovate UK, have shown that dynamic routing and dynamic timetabling in public transport could be enabled by autonomous technology, allowing flexible operations 24 hours per day,” states Preston.
“We all hate poor, unreliable public transport, but with autonomous buses it would be possible to increase the frequency of buses to at least one every five minutes and enable routes that are could alleviate the need for personal transport,” he continues. “Furthermore, autonomous cars won’t just sit in car parks anymore; they will continue on, doing other jobs during the day, instead of waiting on the side of the road, creating better traffic flow.”
While common use of autonomous technology in both public and personal transport remains a few years away, it offers a simple solution to creating greener, safer cities. The first step to its widespread acceptance may very well lie with winning the hearts and minds of the public through its performance on the racetrack.
