Only 1 week until the beginning of the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge in VictorVille, CA

[Adam Shapiro]

I just got back from NQE last night (I will be returning this weekend for the final event). So far it has been an extremely impressive display of talent, hard work, and innovation. Though I can't describe the qualifying tests, I can say that they are very difficult, even for the most advanced teams, and everyone who has attempted the task of completing them has done an amazing job.

The following are a few teams that I have been particularly impressed with so far, both in design and performance. Though I've only listed a few, rest assured that is not nearly the whole list.

Team Lux - Lux's car is very impressive in that it is nearly impossible to tell it is an autonomous vehicle by looking at it, unless you were already aware. They have built all sensors within the confines of the car, and all wiring and computers are hidden under the car's panels.

Team AnnieWAY - This German team has done an incredible job with the very difficult task of negotiating intersections and merging into moving traffic. Watching their run on the course that tested those behaviors was a great experience. They took turns smoothly, handled occluded cars properly, and generally looked like there wasn't an empty driver's seat inside.

Stanford Racing - As expected, Stanford has lived up to their previous performance and put on quite a show. Stanford has worked very closely with VW to produce a really smooth drive-by-wire system and a really cool dynamic AI. Their car drives and navigates beautifully.

Of note:
Team TerraMax - When Oshkosh says they build big trucks, it is in no way an understatement.

Insight Racing - A Lotus driving around the course on its own is a pretty cool thing to see. Seeing it parked next to TerraMax waiting for a practice time is another thing all together!

Axion Racing - They used a PS3 as an image processing system. Enough said.

There are many, many other teams I'd like to mention but the list would go on for quite a while. There are still a few days remaining before the final event, so it's still anyone's guess who will make it to the final event on Saturday. All I can say is that I wish all teams good luck!

PS. Team Cornell is doing very well by the way. As of this morning we've run 4 of 6 test runs, and aside from a few minor code bugs our vehicle, Skynet, has out-performed our expectations. I'm very proud of everyone on the team, and I'm honored to have had the opportunity to work with them. I will be flying back down Friday for the final event, so I'll keep everyone posted.