Comments on: Robot Hummer hits milepost in driverless challenge

Carnegie Mellon's artificially intelligent military-style car drives 200 miles autonomously, seeks DARPA prize.

[oconnmic]

Robotic Hummer

What job will they replace next?

President of The US?

:-)

[Greg Sparkman]

High Schoolers Beat Them Last Year

The DARPA group from my son's high school, Palos Verdes High,
beat out Carnegie Mellon last year. There a number of groups
competing in the DARPA challange, including PV High once again. I
wonder why the story is devoid of reporting on the performance of
these other groups.

[Fray9]

Because

I beleive thats because this vehicle is the heaviest, potentially fastest, and potentially most dangerous contender in the competition.

Therefore to have it sucessfully navigate a long distance at high speed without incident is noteworthy.

The story isnt about the DARPA Challenge and its contestants, its about the progress of the CMU team and their creation specifically.

Beat them in what...?

I think the reason they werne't mentioned is that they weren't a serious competitor. I can't seem to find exactly what Palo Verdas beat CMU in. The DARPA website (http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge04/media/final_data.pdf)
says for Carnegie Mellon:

<<Vehicle 22 - Red Team - At mile 7.4, on switchbacks in a mountainous section, vehicle
went off course, got caught on a berm and rubber on the front wheels caught fire, which
was quickly extinguished. Vehicle was command-disabled.>>

For Palo Verdes:

<<Vehicle 10 - Palos Verdes High School Road Warriors - Vehicle hit a wall in the start
area. Vehicle was removed from the course.>>

Further reading of this document puts nine groups ahead of Palo Verdes... Maybe you're thinking of another competition or I'm in error, but to blindly assert that Plao Verdes beat Carnegie Mellon seems very uninformed and misleading.

CMU Spent Enough To Get There

From what I have heard Carnegie Mellon has spent upwards of $5 million dollars on developing their vehicle, trying to win a $2 million prize. Other teams that are still in the competition have spent as little as $100,000. If they both cross the finish line, which one do you think the Army will be most interested in?

[montgomeryburns]

Thats what it takes..

The army wouldn't have to pay for development of the winning
system just the implementation. Why would the army spend the
same amount on development that's already been done? Your logic
is flawed.