DARPA Challenge won by “Boss”
Autonomous vehicles closer to
reality.
Engineering students from Carnegie Mellon University in the US state of Pennsylvania won a two-million-dollar prize for being rated the top finisher in a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency “Urban Challenge” held Saturday.
In a race worthy of a science fiction film, Carnegie Mellon’s “Tartan Racing Team” backed by automotive giant GM stuffed sensors, radar and other electronics into a Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicle nicknamed “Boss.”
Boss and five other driverless vehicles maneuvered themselves 100 km along mock city streets on a closed Southern California military base to a finish line within a mandated six-hour time limit.
Eleven robotic cars and trucks began the race, and an additional 40 cars driven by people joined them to simulate city traffic.
Folks working on these critters get better and better all the time. Six out of eleven starters finished inside the time limit.
Posted: Mon - November 5, 2007 at 06:36 AM