Commonly referred to as the worst movie of the Star Wars saga, “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” does have one redeeming feature—pod racing.
Ask anybody of a certain age, including this writer, and they will tell you of their numerous vivid dreams of being inside one of those machines, and racing it across some perilous landscape.
While it is most probable that these dreams will never turn to reality, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is hoping to bring nerds everywhere the next best thing, with a $1 million investment in the up-and-coming Drone Racing League.
Ross’ RSE Ventures, a venture capital firm that he co-founded, recently placed $1 million in the first round of funding for this fledgling league, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Drone Racing League, based out of New York City, plans on beginning their first season of racing this year. They held a trial race in an abandoned power plant in Yonkers, with six pilots maneuvering through the hallways, windows and different obstacles within the building. The Drone Racing League is hoping to use interior spaces like this one for all of their races.
The drones that these pilots use, part of the “250 class” of quadcopters, cost around $300 to $500 and can reach speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. The most “pod racing” part of all this is the fact that these drones have a camera on them that is hooked up to the pilot’s virtual reality goggles. So, the pilot feels as if they are in the cockpit of this small machine, dodging past whatever landscape the race is held in. The pilots still use a remote control to guide their drone.
Similar to NASCAR, drone racing is just as much having the right hardware for your drone as being able to pilot it with dexterous ability.
As a sport, drone racing has already drawn a number of participants apart from the lack of a consolidated league.
In fact, there was even a U.S. National Drone Racing Championship this past July in Sacramento. The prize pool for the championship was $25,000 for three different categories.
The Nationals drew a sizable crowd of drone enthusiasts, reaching over 120 pilots. But their main issue is one that the Drone Racing League will have to fix—at an event with 120 competitors, there were only an estimated 60 fans.
The primary problem is that there is not yet a way for fans to see what is going on in the virtual cockpit, which is the coolest part (see video below). It would be hard to convince anyone to show up on a hot summer day to see some drones buzzing around a football field.
So, that will be Ross’ largest hurdle to jump, but as long as he takes some notes from “Star Wars,” the Drone Racing League may have a high-flying future.