For the record, this is online and not the AI. The AI ALWAYS wins in a collision. That is a given. Still, I have no problem with the elite AI. They are indeed programmed to be rocks, but they are also programmed to be incredibly predictable.
I hadn't considered the shield stat correlation. That seems quite plausible Tug. Though the incident I recall was on the bridge at Tech De Ra. I had near full shield, and just hit a speed pad. Some other guy swiped me as I was sideshifting to recover, and I bounced off track.
A brief note about collisions of any type on a Magstrip, it will take MUCH longer to recover even from cannon and swipes.
All this taken in to consideration, I think it would be a nice addition to have shield stats (not current shield amount) be related to how much you can stay on track. I would probably only use the Auricom prototype if it had better stats for this reason alone. But for HD, I would gladly switch to Piranha if I knew that it meant less getting thrown around on collisions.