PC V1.8 introduced this:
- AI improvements on slower reaction after an impact, for more realistic collisions
(On PC version 1.81)
They still have a long way to go with the AI though, there are bad characteristics that have been there for too long now.
I've been doing a lot of spec races and 'open track days' with the AI. In races there are some genuinely impressive moments - brave but clean dives down the inside, passing on the outside, 4 wide on the main straight and so on. However there are still some awful problems as well that have been race ruining for me. Particular flat out corners still have the AI jamming their brakes on completely unnecessarily, or they take some sections far slower than they're capable of, quite often I have rear ended one of them in these situations or had to take to the grass.
The worst one for me at the moment is when you're bunched in a pack of cars and some of the AI ahead decide to pit. It's all fair enough at this point - the pitting AI pull over to the side with ample time, the problem is that the AI which is still racing down the main straight will suddenly perform an emergency stop when they are parallel with the pitting cars.
I have seen this happen almost every time when there's one car pitting while the other is not. Last night I was at the end of a 40-45 minute clean spec race,, only two minor incidents on the first lap. The situation I spoke about above happened on the penultimate lap when I was about to lap some backmarkers at Mugello. The fellow not only slammed his brakes in front of me trying to avoid something that wasn't there, but when I swerved to get around him, the bugger turned in my direction too. Our Zakspeeds collided so hard that he almost completed a double somersault and both our cars were 🤬'ed.
And while I'm at it, I wish Kunos would fix the issue with fast cars downright refusing to pass slow cars. Doesn't matter if the road is 8 cars wide, they just won't do it, it's like the AI driver is frantically calling his insurance company and signing some health and safety forms before contemplating each pass.