Motorsport has historically driven technological innovation in the automotive industry. Autonomous racing provides a proving ground to push the limits of performance of autonomous vehicle (AV) systems. In principle, AVs could be at least as fast, if not faster, than humans. However, human driven racing provides broader audience appeal thus far, and is more strategically challenging. Both provide opportunities to push each other even further technologically, yet competitions remain separate. This paper evaluates whether the future of motorsport could encompass joint competition between humans and AVs. Analysis of the current state of the art, as well as recent competition outcomes, shows that while technical performance has reached comparable levels, there are substantial challenges in racecraft, strategy and safety that need to be overcome. Outstanding issues involved in mixed human-AI racing, ranging from an initial assessment of critical factors such as system-level latencies, to effective planning and risk guarantees are explored. The crucial non-technical aspect of audience engagement and appeal regarding the changing character of motorsport is addressed. In the wider context of motorsport and AVs, this work outlines a proposed agenda for future research to 'keep pushing the possible', in the true spirit of motorsport.

翻译：赛车运动历来是汽车行业技术创新的驱动力。自动驾驶赛车为探索自动驾驶车辆系统性能极限提供了试验场。原则上，自动驾驶车辆的速度至少可以与人类车手相当，甚至可能更快。然而，迄今为止，人类驾驶的赛车对观众具有更广泛的吸引力，并且在策略上也更具挑战性。两者都为推动对方在技术上更进一步提供了机会，但目前的竞赛仍然相互分离。本文评估了未来赛车运动是否可能包含人类与自动驾驶车辆的联合竞赛。通过对当前技术现状以及近期竞赛结果的分析表明，虽然技术性能已达到相当水平，但在赛车技艺、策略和安全性方面仍存在需要克服的重大挑战。本文探讨了人机混合赛车中涉及的突出问题，范围从对系统级延迟等关键因素的初步评估，到有效的规划与风险保障。同时，本文也探讨了关于赛车运动性质变化中观众参与度和吸引力的关键非技术层面。在更广泛的赛车运动与自动驾驶车辆背景下，本研究以真正的赛车精神，为未来旨在“持续突破可能极限”的研究提出了一个议程框架。