A2RL Drone Race in April 2025; participants to compete for a prize pool of $1 million in Abu Dhabi

Top international teams, research centers, and innovators will compete in Abu Dhabi for a $1 million prize pool in the A2RL Drone Race, a new frontier in racing that combines human talents with cutting-edge technologies. 

This year's Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) Car Race, which saw eight foreign teams demonstrate driverless cars at the Yas Marina Circuit in April, set the stage for the futuristic racing championship, which is slated for April 2025. 

10,000 spectators, 900,000 online viewers, and 22,000 VR app users attended the historic motorsport event. A2RL, organized by Aspire, seeks to quicken the pace at which autonomous systems and technologies are developed worldwide.

The world's top professional drone racing organization, the Drone Champions League, will collaborate with the race challenge. 

April 2025 will see the first race, and until at least the end of 2028, two races are scheduled year.

Three-phase procedure for selection:

Registration for the race challenge is available at www.a2rl.io till September 20th. There will be three phases to guarantee that the top competitors are chosen.

- Screening: Using research papers, project websites, or drone flying footage, judges assess applicants' robotics and artificial intelligence experience and expertise. 

- Video: Evaluating videos of self-piloting drone submissions. 

- Exercise conducted on-site: Teams must provide a live demo. 

A maximum of 20 teams will be chosen to fight for a $1 million prize pool in the grand finale in April 2025.