 When you hear the word self-racing cars, you probably imagine high-end autonomous vehicles zipping around the track at dizzying speeds. Well, not really. In late May, a dozen or so teams came to California's Thunderhill Raceway to participate in what was called the first installment of the Self-Racing Cars series. I'm trying to do something that's more about like the, not so much spectator sport, but love of engineering. People want to build stuff, they want interesting challenges to build. That's what I'm trying to do. I want people to be able to field a competitive vehicle for less than $10,000. Racing is an exaggeration though. There weren't actually any races that weekend, and with no qualifying rules, the event attracted a motley crew. Investors, high-end parts suppliers, and two guys with a Power Wheels car. A lot of these cars couldn't even make it around the track on their own. It was more of an opportunity for drivers and engineers to come test their technology, find potential partners or customers, or just trade notes with fellow enthusiasts. This event at Thunderhill, I think, is incredibly valuable to the autonomous community, because not many times where you can have a track day for this sort of thing. It's still really new. I mean, a lot of this technology, you hear it in the news all the time, but there's still a lot of testing miles. There's still a lot of things that need to be done. And the reason why I think this is fantastic is that, I mean, racing has made innovations for vehicles for the past 100 years. I mean, this weekend's the Indy 500. It started in 1911. The average speed was 70 miles an hour. Now it's over 220 miles an hour. That right there is proof of how motorsports are technology movers. So what's really interesting about this event is that we're on one way of looking at it. We're just reinventing the wheel, right? There's nothing here that Google hasn't already done. You can take a Google autonomous car and put it on this racetrack and it'll do absolutely fine. And I think the point is exactly the same point that Jobs and Wozniak had when they had the Homebrew Computing Club. You know, the Apple II was not the first computer or the best computer. It was probably the worst computer. But it took a different evolutionary path. You know, unlike the mainframe getting faster, smaller, etc., the PC ended up going in a different direction. And the hope here is that this will go in a different direction. Then we're not just going to end up with another Google autonomous car. We're going to do something that Google wouldn't dare or want to do. Tens of thousands of people are dying every day in the globe because of automated technologies are not enabling to save their lives. For me personally, I also have a special needs child. A special needs child that will probably never be able to actually drive his car by himself. So this can enable him to live a normal life. And I'm not alone there. We're not just racing cars here. I think that we're really changing the future and adding quality of life to millions of people in the world. As the technology advances over the next few years, we'll definitely be watching self-driving races. Next year, there's an all-electric autonomous race launching called RoboRace. Will the soft racing car series be a DIY alternative? Maybe, but that's still at least a few years off. First, these teams will have to teach their cars to make it around the track. Then, the soft racing car series might actually be a race.
 When you hear the word self-racing cars, you probably imagine high-end autonomous vehicles
 zipping around the track at dizzying speeds.
 Well, not really.
 In late May, a dozen or so teams came to California's Thunderhill Raceway to participate in what was called
 the first installment of the Self-Racing Cars series.
 I'm trying to do something that's more about like the, not so much spectator sport, but love of engineering.
 People want to build stuff, they want interesting challenges to build.
 That's what I'm trying to do. I want people to be able to field a competitive vehicle for less than $10,000.
 Racing is an exaggeration though.
 There weren't actually any races that weekend, and with no qualifying rules, the event attracted a motley crew.
 Investors, high-end parts suppliers, and two guys with a Power Wheels car.
 A lot of these cars couldn't even make it around the track on their own.
 It was more of an opportunity for drivers and engineers to come test their technology,
 find potential partners or customers, or just trade notes with fellow enthusiasts.
 This event at Thunderhill, I think, is incredibly valuable to the autonomous community,
 because not many times where you can have a track day for this sort of thing.
 It's still really new.
 I mean, a lot of this technology, you hear it in the news all the time, but there's still a lot of testing miles.
 There's still a lot of things that need to be done.
 And the reason why I think this is fantastic is that, I mean, racing has made innovations for vehicles for the past 100 years.
 I mean, this weekend's the Indy 500. It started in 1911. The average speed was 70 miles an hour.
 Now it's over 220 miles an hour. That right there is proof of how motorsports are technology movers.
 So what's really interesting about this event is that we're on one way of looking at it.
 We're just reinventing the wheel, right? There's nothing here that Google hasn't already done.
 You can take a Google autonomous car and put it on this racetrack and it'll do absolutely fine.
 And I think the point is exactly the same point that Jobs and Wozniak had when they had the Homebrew Computing Club.
 You know, the Apple II was not the first computer or the best computer. It was probably the worst computer.
 But it took a different evolutionary path.
 You know, unlike the mainframe getting faster, smaller, etc., the PC ended up going in a different direction.
 And the hope here is that this will go in a different direction.
 Then we're not just going to end up with another Google autonomous car.
 We're going to do something that Google wouldn't dare or want to do.
 Tens of thousands of people are dying every day in the globe because of automated technologies are not enabling to save their lives.
 For me personally, I also have a special needs child.
 A special needs child that will probably never be able to actually drive his car by himself.
 So this can enable him to live a normal life. And I'm not alone there.
 We're not just racing cars here. I think that we're really changing the future and adding quality of life to millions of people in the world.
 As the technology advances over the next few years, we'll definitely be watching self-driving races.
 Next year, there's an all-electric autonomous race launching called RoboRace.
 Will the soft racing car series be a DIY alternative?
 Maybe, but that's still at least a few years off.
 First, these teams will have to teach their cars to make it around the track.
 Then, the soft racing car series might actually be a race.