Victorville (CA) – DARPA officials took a chainsaw to the remaining list of Urban Challenge contestants and are allowing only 11 teams into this Saturday’s race.  Dr. Tony Tether, the head of DARPA, said the decision was based mainly on safety and whether the robots would impede other vehicles from reaching their destination.  He added that Tartan Racing’s “Boss” bot performed the best during the qualifications.

The finalists for the Urban Challenge race on Saturday are

1. AnnieWay
2. Ben Franklin
3. CarOLO
4. Cornell
5. Intelligent Vehicle Systems
6. MIT
7. Stanford Racing
8. Tartan Racing
9. Team Oshkosh
10. Team UCF
11. Victor Tango

Dr. Tether joked that he wanted to eliminate Team Oshkosh, but the team’s giant military chassis bot cemented the final position by performing the merging vehicle’s course perfectly.  “It was an A plus plus job,” said Tether.