[technoL]

Depending on the game, I can only see this as disastrous for most teams. There are a few teams that shine in auto mode, and they will most likely continue to succeed, but everyone else will still be left in the dust at the robot beauty pageant.

Many robots are damaged at the end of the match. How could a team guarantee a functional auto mode when they are unsure of the condition of their robot? Sure, greater technology could be used to navigate to/around field obstacles, but it leaves many at a great disadvantages. It seems to be that there is a certain line of difficulty that teams draw; once FIRST creates a game element to reach that point, many teams simply give up on the additional challenge. If FIRST wants to encourage more teams to develop advanced software or utilize autonomous, making the challenge harder is not the way to go.