Victorville (CA) – There are still two days left at the DARPA Urban Challenge qualifications, but officials are already eliminating teams because of poor performance.  DARPA has just told us that six teams have been eliminated and will no longer participate in any more qualification runs.  The eliminations will free up slots for the other more capable teams.

“DARPA has determined that the following teams are not ready to compete in the Final Event, and will no longer participate in the NQE,” DARPA states in a press release.

The eliminated teams include: 1) George Tech/SAIC Sting Racing, 2) Ody-Era, 3) SciAutonics/Auburn Engineering, 4) Team Berlin, 5) University of Utah and 6) Princeton University.

The eliminated teams undoubtedly spent hundreds, if not thousands, of man-hours in preparing for the qualifications and that effort does not go unnoticed, especially with DARPA officials.

“DARPA congratulates these teams for making it to the semifinals, and salutes them for their contributions to developing autonomous robotic ground vehicle technology that will someday save lives on the battlefield,” said DARPA.

Complete DARPA Urban Challenge coverage including videos, pictures and articles here

Go.....

Oct 30, 2007 13:07     

Team CajunBot!!!
barturtle report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

..

Oct 30, 2007 15:32     

Why progress should go with military first ??? "battlefield" :(((( - stop even think about wars and battlefields. GUYS think about people and drivers on regular roads, convenience and progress for human bean. Sorry... it is Very-very disappointing comments from DARPA and ===== CONGRATULATIONS to all teams ========
Canadian report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Go Team Victor Tango!

Oct 30, 2007 16:18     

Sorry to see the likes of Georgia Tech and Princeton get the boot, but... Go Hookies!
BGP_Spook report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

When does VictorTango qualify?

Oct 31, 2007 09:01     

Go Hokies!
Hokie D report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

In response to Canadian, Main reason a lot of progr...

Oct 31, 2007 11:09     

In response to Canadian, Main reason a lot of progress goes to the military first is because they have the money to do so. They enough money and enough potential gain to say, "Hey, this endever is very, very risky and the potential payoffs aren't too great, but we'll still do it." They also have enough money to afford these types of cars. Most of the cars have multiple SICK LIDARs. Each one of those cost $3000 . I think I counted something like 10 SICK LIDARs on the front of MIT's car alone. That's already $30,000 in sensors. After the military uses this type of technology, and the technology matures, then it eventually gets to the consumer, because then it because economically feasible to do so.

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