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Re: Looks like the DARPA GRAND CHALLENGE will be won today
Okay, it looks like the official finish times have now been posted on the Grand Challenge web site. Here is how it breaks out:
Stanford Racing Team (Stanley) 6 hours 53 minutes
Red Team (Sandstorm) 7 hours 4 minutes
Red Team Too (H1ghlander) 7 hours 14 minutes
Gray Team (grayBot) 7 hours 30 minutes
Team TerraMax (TerraMax) 12 hours 51 minutes
All the other competitors are ranked "Did not complete"
Five finishers, with four of them completing the course within the 10-hour time limit, is VERY impressive! If the times hold true, it looks like Stanford will pick up a nice $2,000,000 check. The fun part, from a personal standpoint, is that the lead engineer on the Stanford team - Mike Montemerlo - is the son of my former office mate. But to illustrate how small the universe of potential participants really is, both Mike and the Stanford team lead, Sebastian Thrun, are products of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Mike is one of Red Whittaker's (leader of the Red Team and Red Team Too) former students. As Red watches Mike pick up the check, he may remember the day that Mike snatched the pebble from his hand, and Red had to say "it is time for you to leave." *
-dave
* first one to get the reference wins a Krispy Kreme donut - I understand that Amanda Morrison still has a few left.
__________________
"I know what you're thinking, punk," hissed Wordy Harry to his new editor, "you're thinking, 'Did he use six superfluous adjectives or only five?' - and to tell the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement; but being as this is English, the most powerful language in the world, whose subtle nuances will blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' - well do you, punk?"
- Stuart Vasepuru, 2006 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
My OTHER CAR is still on Mars!!!
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