Autonomous cars!
Stanford wins the DARPA Robot Car Race!
This is not easy. I've raced motorcycles in long distance 'overland' races many times, and I can report that just completing a race like this one is an accomplishment to be proud of; to have averaged 19 miles per hour over the whole race is very very impressive; but to have done it with out a human driver is totally amazing! This is the beginning of a vast new transportation age.
There were five finishers this year (last year none finished), and this year's number two car was a mere 11 minutes behind. This was a real race! That these robot devices were designed and built by private institutions, under the direction of some very clever private citizens - and not in some secret government skunk works - is yet another indication of how big this step actually is. In the not very distant future, we can expect to see private entrepreneurs developing all kinds of autonomous transportation devices, eventually including cars that can drive us along on the interstate highways, faster and safer than we can do it ourselves...maybe even drive us home safely in blizzards! This is clearly a plausible future.
At the very least we will see this particular desert race get very interesting next year when they run it again. Next year they're going to go a lot faster; maybe as fast as humans. Is the 1000 mile Baja race next? Robotic car technology will have completely 'arrived' when an autonomous car can win the unlimited class at Baja...against humans. Actually maybe winning the Indy 500 will be easier.
2005 DARPA GRAND CHALLENGE CHAMPIONS
Today Stanley and the Stanford Racing Team were awarded 2 million dollars for being the first team to complete the 132 mile DARPA Grand Challenge course. Stanley finished in just under 6 hours 54 minutes and averaged over 19 miles per hours on the course.
Stanford Volkswagen Wins $2M Robot Race
PRIMM, Nev. - A driverless Volkswagen won a $2 million race across the rugged Nevada desert Sunday, beating four other robot-guided vehicles that completed a Pentagon-sponsored contest aimed at making warfare safer for humans.
The race displayed major technological leaps since last year's inaugural race, when none of the self-driving vehicles crossed the finish line.
Stanley the VW Touareg, designed by Stanford University, zipped through the 132-mile Mojave Desert course in six hours and 53 minutes Saturday, using only its computer brain and sensors to navigate rough and twisting desert and mountain trails. The Stanford team celebrated by popping champagne and pouring it over the mud-covered Stanley.
Stanford Volkswagen Wins $2M Robot Race
Stanley is equipped with seven Pentium-M processors, GPS, a radar system, four laser range finders and stereo camera set-up as well as a single camera system. It has an inertial measurement unit, that along with wheel speed data can estimate how the vehicle is tilted, relative to the ground.
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