rec.autos.simulators

Just wanted to get yer attention.  No kidding, I'm doing a story on the
recent DARPA-sponsored race for "autonomous" robot cars across the Mojave
(none finished) for a major national publication (no, not Playboy) and if
any of you saw the extensive coverage--or were there in person--and have any
pithy comments to make (with attribution or OTR), I'd love to hear 'em.
TIA.

--Steve

Is that the race that Wired Magazine had an article about in the March
issue?
How far did they go? About 100 yds?  ;-)
The driverless motorcycle looked like a silly idea, even if it's
technologically possible. I saw that one fall over after it's "helper" let
go of it.

--
Richard "ZZ" Busch

Member:
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Remember racecar is racecar spelled backward
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Yes, it was covered in Wired and Pop Science, both long pre-race pieces in
the March issues.  During the event (which began at the Fontana Speedway),
the media was out in force: German TV, Japanese TV (altho no Japanese Bots,
despite their interest in robotics), local TV, the networks, cable news, the
wire services, the L.A. Times, the New York Times, the London Times, the
BBC, the History Channel, Wired, Pop Sci, Scientific American, etc.  And
yers truly.

The bike guy--it was a 125cc dirt bike--actually had the most resonant
theory (about why a 2-wheeler was the way to go), but the worst execution.
It never got very far during the event (neither did anybody else), it
actually only went abt. 3 ft., but he showed a video of it going around in
circles for several minutes.

The race was originally billed as Los Angeles to Las Vegas, abt. 350 miles.
Practical considerations reduced this to abt. 250 miles, and last-minute
concerns abt. whether or not there would be ANY finishers reduced this to
abt. 150 miles.  The farthest anybody actually got was abt. 7 miles, or 5%
of the distance.

Still, it's gonna happen.  Congress has mandated that one third of the
military's ground vehicles be autonomous (that is, self-driven--no human
input--as opposed to remote-controlled, like the Predator unmanned a/c) by
2015.  Billions in DoD contracts are at stake.  DARPA said if nobody claimed
the million-dollar, winner-take-all prize, the event would be re-run again
(and again) until somebody won.  I whispered to Dr. Anthony Tether, the
genial academic who heads DARPA (the Pentagon's think tank), "Why not roll
it over like a Lotto prize, and make it $2 million next time?"  "That's a
great idea," said Dr. Tony, who promptly announced it to the press.

If you can't wait until fall, 2005, when the next event will prolly be run,
there's already a kinda FIA for Bot racing, the International Robot Racing
Federation, which is going to start holding races later this year.

Does it bother anyone else that a lone individual can decide in an instant to
give away one million dollars of my money?

Don McCorkle