Robotic Vehicles Race, but Innovation Wins - New York Times

It has been almost 18 months since the Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, first attracted a motley array of autonomous vehicles with a prize of $1 million for the first to complete a 142-mile desert course from Barstow, Calif., to Las Vegas. The most successful robot, developed by a Carnegie Mellon University team, managed all of seven miles.

With the next running scheduled for Oct. 8 - and this time a $2 million purse for the winner among 43 entries - it is clear that many of the participants have made vast progress. For some researchers, it is an indication of a significant transformation in what has been largely a science fiction fantasy.

'Computers are starting to sprout legs and move around in the environment,' said Andy Rubin, a Silicon Valley technologist and a financial backer of this year's Stanford Racing Team, which produced Stanley. Mr. Rubin, who tinkers with robots himself, was the co-founder of Danger Inc., which created the Sidekick hand-held.

The Pentagon agency, known as Darpa, struck upon the idea of a race - calling it the Grand Challenge - as a way to stimulate innovations useful in battlefield applications like unmanned logistics vehicles.

This program is one cool contest. Watch the video of these vehicles driving around, these guys can really do some cool engineering. Soon they will have fully autonomous cars. Manned vehicles, but driven by computers. Think of the advantages to public traffic on the roads - less accidents and more efficient use of space and speeds for example. I wouldn't mind catching a few extra zzz's on my commute to work, how about you?

Defense | Engineering