September 14, 2005

The Defense Department is Holding a Race

StrategyPage has a great post about a contest somewhat like the prize to go into outer space.

DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is holding it’s second “Grand Challenge” race, on October 8th, for developers of UGV (unmanned ground vehicles.) DARPA is offering a two million dollar prize for the first UGV to complete the 280 kilometer course, in less than ten hours. The race, first held last year, has not yet been won.

[. . .]

In the first race last year, no vehicle completed the course. In fact, the best any vehicle could do was 23 kilometers (about ten percent of the entire course.) This year, several participants feel they can not only finish, but do it quickly enough to win the prize.

Posted by The Vorlon at September 14, 2005 8:44 PM