MAYS IBRAHIM (ABU DHABI)
Abu Dhabi is staging high-stakes battles of humans versus machines, where autonomous drones dart through gates and manoeuvre obstacles at incredible speeds while AI race cars tear up the Yas Marina Circuit without a driver.
Last April, the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) made headlines when AI drones outpaced professional human pilots.
The second season of the drone championship will take place on January 21 and 22, 2026, at ADNEC in Abu Dhabi.
Teams from around the world will compete on complex aerial courses featuring moving obstacles, split gates, and precision manoeuvres designed to test not just speed, but intelligence and adaptability.
A2RL’s drone programme head Francesco Maria Blasi on Monday spoke to Aletihad about the innovations driving the performance of the league’s autonomous drones.
Lightweight, agile and powered by sophisticated AI “brains”, each drone navigates the course using a single monocamera, making real-time decisions as they zoom through dynamic obstacles.
“We’ve simplified the technology to make the drones faster, cheaper, and more efficient, while still performing highly complex manoeuvres,” he said during the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Week.
The latest generation of A2RL’s drones can go over 140km/h, fully autonomous, according to Blasi.
The drone competition will take place in a 25m x 25m stadium-style cage, complete with live commentary and overhead screens.
Fans will be able to watch in real time as AI pilots calculate split-second paths through moving gates.
On the ground, the action is just as intense. The A2RL car race on November 15 will feature two headline events: a human-versus-machine race pitting Formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat against the autonomous car developed by the Technical University of Munich, and a multi-car battle among the six fastest teams out of 11 qualifiers.
The upgraded EAV-25 autonomous race cars will tackle Yas Marina Circuit in a high-speed test of AI precision.
Speaking with Aletihad during the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Week, Stephane Timpano, CEO of ASPIRE and A2RL, explained that the EAV-25 retains the capabilities of a Formula 1 car but replaces the human driver with a fully autonomous kit.
Teams fine-tune the AI to emulate the reflexes and driving strategies of top F1 drivers, giving each car a unique “character” on track, he said.
The EAV-25 boasts extensive upgrades for safety, reliability, and performance, including reinforced emergency braking systems, secondary inertial measurement units, upgraded electronics, motorsport-grade wiring, and lighter chassis components.
The powertrain has also been enhanced with a new Honda OEM alternator, improved fuel line, and optimised gearbox for smoother and more efficient performance.
This year’s car championship brings together elite research teams from 10 countries, including newcomers France and Japan, alongside returning teams from the US, Germany, China, Singapore, Italy, and the UAE.
They compete not just for a prize pool —$2.25 million for the car championship — but to advance the science of autonomous systems, pushing the limits of AI decision-making, perception, and speed.