DARPA sponsored race a miserable failiure

[ArmenK]

pretty sad

The farthest any of the contestants got was about 7 miles of the 150 mile course.

Edit: also check out this story (was under related links on the page linekd above)

 

[andylawcc]

hey, at least the after party will launch eariler ....

 

[Evadman]

Go get the million, a driverless vehicle would have had to average 15 mph for 10 hours straight. Ya right, no way in hell. I could see that car that was converted to remote control do it (awesome video) but not an autonomous vehicle.

 

[NogginBoink]

Your edit links to a story dated July 30, 2003.

This hardly qualifies as news any more.

 

[jjones]

My guess is that since the prize is only a million, the result is not too surprising. It would take several million, perhaps tens of millions to develop a robot vehicle that could traverse 150 miles of Mojave desert. Remember, this is completely robotic and without remote control; pure programmimg, sensors, GPS, etc. to go the distance.

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: Evadman
Go get the million, a driverless vehicle would have had to average 15 mph for 10 hours straight. Ya right, no way in hell. I could see that car that was converted to remote control do it (awesome video) but not an autonomous vehicle.

i think the course was supposed to be 250 miles, but was shortened because of the poor showing at the qualifying race (I believe only 2 or 5 teams "qualified").

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: jjones
My guess is that since the prize is only a million, the result is not too surprising. It would take several million, perhaps tens of millions to develop a robot vehicle that could traverse 150 miles of Mojave desert. Remember, this is completely robotic and without remote control; pure programmimg, sensors, GPS, etc. to go the distance.

The teams had a lot of corporate backing. I think the "red team" (from CMU, I think) spent several million on their humvee.

 

[br0wn]

Originally posted by: Evadman
Go get the million, a driverless vehicle would have had to average 15 mph for 10 hours straight. Ya right, no way in hell. I could see that car that was converted to remote control do it (awesome video) but not an autonomous vehicle.

Actually the CMU team covers 7 mile in 15 minutes (so thats about 28 mph).

 

[EyeMWing]

This was to be expected. Wired's rundown of the contestants showed only perhaps one frontrunner with the software backing, and the hardware seemed pretty flakey to me. This is the one built on the old Humvee chassis painted red. The main problems are:

1) Current sensor technology SUCKS - very low refreshes
2) Pathing. Current pathing routines are acceptable, but no hi-res maps suitable for such a thing exist.

 

[CanOWorms]

There are already vehicles that have traveled all the way across the country on interstates by themselves. So I'd think that eventually they'd get this done, too.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: Evadman
Go get the million, a driverless vehicle would have had to average 15 mph for 10 hours straight. Ya right, no way in hell. I could see that car that was converted to remote control do it (awesome video) but not an autonomous vehicle.

That's the challenge. If it was easy there would have been no contest. The brightest minds at MIT among other places competed in this.

 

[beer]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms
There are already vehicles that have traveled all the way across the country on interstates by themselves. So I'd think that eventually they'd get this done, too.

Link?? I call shens.

 

[Dissipate]

Wow, another great use of U.S. tax dollars.

 

[crypticlogin]

Originally posted by: Dissipate
Wow, another great use of U.S. tax dollars.

Isn't it? Putting money up to promote enterprise and ingenuity IS a great use!

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: Dissipate
Wow, another great use of U.S. tax dollars.

These are all privately funded teams competing in the race, genius.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: Dissipate
Wow, another great use of U.S. tax dollars.

These are all privately funded teams competing in the race, genius.

The $1 million prize is provied by DARPA a government agency, genius.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: tenchim

Originally posted by: Dissipate
Wow, another great use of U.S. tax dollars.

Isn't it? Putting money up to promote enterprise and ingenuity IS a great use!

How about we let individuals decide what is a good use for their money? OMG, such a horrible, backwards idea!

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: jjones
My guess is that since the prize is only a million, the result is not too surprising. It would take several million, perhaps tens of millions to develop a robot vehicle that could traverse 150 miles of Mojave desert. Remember, this is completely robotic and without remote control; pure programmimg, sensors, GPS, etc. to go the distance.

its called innovation. Someone will figure out a way to do it better.

 

[SSP]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: Dissipate
Wow, another great use of U.S. tax dollars.

These are all privately funded teams competing in the race, genius.

The $1 million prize is provied by DARPA a government agency, genius.

If the government tried to develop the vehicle them selves, it would cost them more then a million, genius.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: Evadman
Go get the million, a driverless vehicle would have had to average 15 mph for 10 hours straight. Ya right, no way in hell. I could see that car that was converted to remote control do it (awesome video) but not an autonomous vehicle.

That's the challenge. If it was easy there would have been no contest. The brightest minds at MIT among other places competed in this.

Exactly. 7 miles with this kind of technology on DARPA's obsticle course is doing great. This isn't flat land, this is terrain designed to screw you up.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: Dissipate
Wow, another great use of U.S. tax dollars.

These are all privately funded teams competing in the race, genius.

The $1 million prize is provided by DARPA a government agency, genius.

You should learn to spell before you call someone a genius. And they still have the $1 million dollars don't they? The future benefits of such a race and program are obviously worth much more than $1 million, but I guess you're too much of an idiot to see that.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: SSP

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: Dissipate
Wow, another great use of U.S. tax dollars.

These are all privately funded teams competing in the race, genius.

The $1 million prize is provied by DARPA a government agency, genius.

If the government tried to develop the vehicle them selves, it would cost them more then a million, genius.

What makes you think the government needs to develop this, genius? All of this money is better off in private hands, the market can decide the optimum amount to put towards R&D projects.

 

[crypticlogin]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

How about we let individuals decide what is a good use for their money? OMG, such a horrible, backwards idea!

Do you have a non-tax funded way of polling on that decision?

 

[br0wn]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

What makes you think the government needs to develop this, genius? All of this money is better off in private hands, the market can decide the optimum amount to put towards R&D projects.

I fully support this kind of project as it accelerates the development in the field. It has applications way beyond military use.
Internet was spun-off as a DARPA supported project, is that a waste of the tax dollars also?

 

[cerebusPu]

darpa does lots of way cool stuff. dissipate can stick the $1million up his ass.