Robot Car Racing

Published over 4 years ago

DARPA recently sponsored a race for robot cars. Cool, huh? It took place in Nevada and Stanford was the winner, and took home a $2 million prize:

Darpa's Website on the Grand Challenge Race“Vehicles competing in the Urban Challenge will have to think like human drivers and continually make split-second decisions to avoid moving vehicles, including robotic vehicles without drivers, and operate safely on the course. The urban setting adds considerable complexity to the challenge faced by the robotic vehicles, and replicates the environments where many of today’s military missions are conducted.” -Dr. Norman Whitaker, Urban Challenge Program Manager

I'm not sure about how I feel towards autonomous robots, yet. I do know that there is little to stop them though, once they get going, and I guess that's where I'm wary.

UPDATE November 5, 2007: Looks like I got that wrong, Carnegie Mellon won this year's DARPA competition.