If you've read or watched any decent Science Fiction, then no doubt you will have been introduced to the autonomous car. One of the more recent and spectacular displays was from the failed movie I, Robot, where Will Smith was casually driven in to a trap by his autonomous car. Or at least, I'm fairly certain that was what was implied; as I said, a crap movie!
However, for those who like to live a little more in the world of reality, the DARPA Grand Challenge is bringing us that little bit closer to ... killer... cars...
OK, well, maybe it's more like they're bringing us closer to cars that we need not drive ourselves, but one can never be too careful.
$3.5 million, 10 miles of track, and no drivers. That's the underlying statistics behind the Grand Challenge, the brainchild of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Eleven cars set out on Saturday to tackle the course, located at the former George Air Force Base. But they weren't just out there alone; they were facing other robots, traffic conditions, normal lights and pedestrians. It's all good and well having a car that drives itself, but it all falls off the rails if it crashes in to a pram.
"This is truly the first time we've taken robots and watched them interact with other robots," said Norman Whitaker, DARPA Urban Challenge program manager. "They have not interacted so far."
Within six hours, there were several tasks to be completed by the robots. Two hours in to the test, three teams had fallen out of the race. Team Oshkosh, Team Annieway, and Intelligent Vehicle Systems were all eliminated, all for varying reasons.
Team Oshkosh, a more than 24,000-pound Oshkost truck nearly ran itself in to an old abandoned shopping center. Team Intelligent didn't seem too intelligent when it found itself confronted with a stop sign.
Though the official announcement won't be given until after the writing of this article (I'm in Australia, give me a break!), the organizers were more than happy to announce that the Stanford VW Passat taking first place above Virginia Tech's modified Ford Escape Hybrid, and Carnegie Mellon's autonomous Chevrolet Tahoe.
The winners weren't just the first across the line though, with precision and performance while driving key factors to who would walk away with the first prize.
The real winner, at least in terms of the outcome, will be the American Defense Force. One of the key motivators for the US military is the hope to minimize the casualties from roadside bombs. Hundreds have been killed in the Iraqi war since 2003 thanks to roadside bombs and IED's, it doesn't come as any surprise then that this is such an important outcome.
Joshua Hill, a Geek’s-Geek from Melbourne, Australia, Josh is an aspiring author with dreams of publishing his epic fantasy, currently in the works, sometime in the next 5 years. A techie, nerd, sci-fi nut and bookworm.
