This is a head's up thread to remind people of this upcoming event. 35 teams will compete at the qualification event from October 26th - 31st to be whittled down into 20 teams. On Saturday November 3rd, the 20 qualifying teams will be sent out on a 'mission' to 5 waypoints within VictorVille, California to last no longer than 6 hours. Teams will have to contend with other robots, other traffic, unexpectedly blocked routes, and other uncertain things that weren't present in the 1st and 2nd Grand Challenges. An interesting aspect that I hadn't read about before (it's in the first link) is that they will be marking the robots as if they are completing a California driver's test. It will be entirely possible for a robot to finish within 6 hours, yet be disqualified for traffic infractions.
Links:
-CNET had a very good interview with the director of DARPA about the Urban Challenge yesterday:
Here
-Main DARPA Urban Challenge site:
Here
-List of Semifinalists:
Here
-Semifinalist hometowns:
Here
-Awesome 49-minute lecture to Google employees by the winner of the 2nd Grand Challenge, Sebastian Thrun:
Here
And the most important bit for those people who live near Victorville:
The Spectator Schedule
I believe there was a FIRST-related team entered in the Urban Challenge, but it looks like they didn't make it to the semifinals.
Students leave and new students come.
But mentors are forever. - fredliu168 [more] 
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