Congrats to DARPA robotic car challenge finishers

November 4, 2007 By

Wired blog has the details on the robotic car race. Tartan Racing (joint effort of General Motors and CMU) came in first, Stanford University, second. Two million dollar and one million dollar prizes, respectively.

Anyway, if you didn’t catch this interview, now might be a great time. It’s with the guy who runs the algorithms on Stanford’s entry.

This is a 60-mile race that is completed by computers. Pretty darn cool technology and a pretty big challenge for computers and the people who program them.

UPDATE: Popular Mechanics has details on the winners.

Filed Under: automobiles, Rocketboom, startups
  • http://aaronsadventures.blogspot.com/ Aaron

    Actually, none of the top 3 finishers had any traffic penalties. CMU finished 20 minutes ahead of Stanford. (The CMU car crossed the finish line a minute after Stanfords, but it started 30 minutes after Stanford — the race was staggered).

  • http://aaronsadventures.blogspot.com Aaron

    Actually, none of the top 3 finishers had any traffic penalties. CMU finished 20 minutes ahead of Stanford. (The CMU car crossed the finish line a minute after Stanfords, but it started 30 minutes after Stanford — the race was staggered).

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  • fg

    Stanford’s car also took more time.

    Based on the headlines from yesterday, which all but declared Stanford had won, along with the stories from last year, which seldom gave mention of Thrun’s connection to CMU, it’s very clear who has the best PR machine.

  • fg

    Stanford’s car also took more time.

    Based on the headlines from yesterday, which all but declared Stanford had won, along with the stories from last year, which seldom gave mention of Thrun’s connection to CMU, it’s very clear who has the best PR machine.

  • http://www.constantskeptic.com/ the constant skeptic

    There is some awesome footage of CMU’s vehicle navigating the course, as well as a few crash scenes of other vehicles. I posted some on my blog as well. I say this will see widespread use in a military role used as a cargo transport vehicle or a refueling vehicle in extreme/dangerous arenas.

  • http://www.constantskeptic.com/ the constant skeptic

    There is some awesome footage of CMU’s vehicle navigating the course, as well as a few crash scenes of other vehicles. I posted some on my blog as well. I say this will see widespread use in a military role used as a cargo transport vehicle or a refueling vehicle in extreme/dangerous arenas.

  • http://www.livedigitally.com/ JT

    As a CMU alum, I’m waving my Tartan high today.

    Great school, but I sure wish our mascot wasn’t a… piece of fabric.

  • http://www.livedigitally.com JT

    As a CMU alum, I’m waving my Tartan high today.

    Great school, but I sure wish our mascot wasn’t a… piece of fabric.

  • http://jburg.typepad.com/future jon burg

    I’ve been following this one for years. The first year or two was a total bust. It takes time for new technologies to take off. Early success doesn’t require perfection.

  • http://jburg.typepad.com/future jon burg

    I’ve been following this one for years. The first year or two was a total bust. It takes time for new technologies to take off. Early success doesn’t require perfection.

  • Wolke Snow

    Your orginal interview was great.

    I could imagine a follow-up with some retrospective by the Stanford team and some discussion of future challenges might be quite interesting. In particular, if you collect reader questions upfront. (It was quite clear in the original interview that a robotic car is not your kind of shiny new object…)

    For example, I would like to know whether the CMU and Stanford teams really had such different size as it appears of the pictures (and as the Wired blog hints at).

    Also: Stanford used 8 cores. How is the software structured? Functional programming languages? (invite your old colleague Charles for that ;)

  • Wolke Snow

    Your orginal interview was great.

    I could imagine a follow-up with some retrospective by the Stanford team and some discussion of future challenges might be quite interesting. In particular, if you collect reader questions upfront. (It was quite clear in the original interview that a robotic car is not your kind of shiny new object…)

    For example, I would like to know whether the CMU and Stanford teams really had such different size as it appears of the pictures (and as the Wired blog hints at).

    Also: Stanford used 8 cores. How is the software structured? Functional programming languages? (invite your old colleague Charles for that ;)

  • http://clopinettes.wordpress.com/ clopinettes

    Astonishing technology in this stuff. I’ve been cutting code for nearly twenty years, and I can safely say I wouldn’t know where to start with a project like this.

    Then again, if we look at it from a live mapping and tracking point of view… right! Time to start wiring up the Saab!

  • http://clopinettes.wordpress.com/ clopinettes

    Astonishing technology in this stuff. I’ve been cutting code for nearly twenty years, and I can safely say I wouldn’t know where to start with a project like this.

    Then again, if we look at it from a live mapping and tracking point of view… right! Time to start wiring up the Saab!

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