Liberty's Blog

And, the Winner is [...]

There is a winner for the DARPA competition. They just haven't announced who will get the $2 Million prize. 4 vehicles made it to the finish line in this grueling 131.2-mile course all with no human drivers. It appears that Stanford University Racing Team with the Volkswagen Touareg named "Stanley" apparently has won the prize, but we hope that success will be found to all these competitors who have helped pushed the limits on what we can accomplish with todays technology. The technology here doesn't just have military applications, but could help us make safer cars for all of us.

A winner, based on travel times, would be declared on Sunday, said DARPA director Tony Tether. "We have a winner, we just don't know who it is," Tether told reporters.

Last year, in the inaugural race sponsored by DARPA, called the Grand Challenge, every machine failed within sight of the starting line. The Pentagon decided to double the prize and hold the event again this year.

Twenty-three modified Humvees, SUVs, pickup trucks and dune buggies were sent into the mountains and valleys in the Nevada desert to navigate man-made obstacles, tunnels and a dry lake bed just after sunrise on Saturday.

One broke down at the starting line.

A blue Volkswagen SUV, "Stanley", built by a Stanford University team, overtook an automated Humvee, "Highlander", built by Carnegie University students at the 164-kilometre mark and arrived at the finish line first.

Shortly afterward, that Humvee and another, "Sandstorm", also built by the Carnegie Mellon team, finished the race.

The rugged, twisting Mojave desert course, about 64 kilometres southwest of Las Vegas on the Nevada-California border, was chosen because of its similarity to terrain where the US military is currently most active, Iraq and the Mideast.

At one point, the vehicles had to climb through a steep valley that organisers said was "reminiscent of a mountain pass in Afghanistan."

DARPA designed a much more difficult course this year, saying at least a third of the contestants would be able to cross the finish line given the level of technology demonstrated in qualification events earlier this week.

But many of the vehicles simply stopped running on the course. One stopped after a tire went flat and another hit a bridge. Still left on the course was a huge six-wheeled truck called "TerraMax" and a modified SUV called "GrayBot".

posted by Liberty @ 7:47 AM