[neal]

For the motor's safety, if it doesn't get called often, it'll automatically stop it. And Timer.delay() stops the whole thread.

I'm assuming you want to run the motor for 8 seconds, this is one way you could do:

public void autonomous() {
	Timer timer = new Timer();
	timer.start();
	while (isAutonomous() && isEnabled()) {
		if(timer.get() < 8) { // Double check this; don't exactly remember what it returns
			driveTrain.drive(0.5, 0.0);
		}
		Timer.delay(0.005);
	}
	timer.stop();
}