The Grand Challenge redux

From the NYT: “Robotic vehicles race, but innovation wins”

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.

And here’s the Wired story: “May the best autopilot win” I’ve always said it would be wicked funny if a team hid a midget in one of the trucks and had him drive it across the desert.