Although racing in Pretend Cars Racing was fun, there was a lot of room for improvement in this regard and after many different approaches and iterations, I am happy to say that I have been able to program an artificial intelligence that is a great improvement compared to the original one. 

This new AI not only provides more challenge to the player but it also fights a lot more between other computer controlled cars, making a lot of overpasses and some mistakes in the process. 

The key to achieving this was to make the AI aware of its surroundings, it now recognizes other cars, obstacles and barriers to avoid.  Bumps still occur, and not all crashes can be avoided in time, but races are much more interesting.

This new approach is also the foundation for a lot of interesting improvements in the future. For example, tow has been implemented and the AI takes advantage of it. It runs close to the car in front, gaining extra speed and steers clear to make a pass, sometimes overshooting a curve and leaving the door open for the other car to regain its position.

I will continue to tweak the settings trying to make them smarter but specially more fun to race against. If you haven´t done so before, try the different difficulties to experience a greater challenge.