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The 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge represents a new frontier in autonomous vehicle technology. We were live onsite for the final of this year's event, which saw 11 robot cars compete in a six-hour contest in a simulated urban environment, complete with traffic, intersections, and parking lots. The rolling robots varied from a driverless 12-ton Oshkosh truck to an autonomous Toyota Prius. Check out our video diary from this weekend's event.

Carnegie Mellon University won the $2 million first place prize in DARPA's urban robot race this weekend, stealing the thunder from 2005's Grand Challenge leader, Stanford University.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge awarded a total of $3.5 million in prizes on Sunday, a day after the race. Stanford University took second place, with a $1 million cash prize, and Virginia Tech won $500,000 for third place.

CMU's robot, Boss, finished the Urban Grand Challenge about 20 minutes faster than Stanford's Junior to win the race.

(Credit: Stefanie Olsen/CNET News.com)

The Urban Challenge was a six-hour test of driverless vehicles on the suburban roads of the former George Air Force Base in Oro Grande, Calif., where the robotic cars were required to complete three missions while obeying traffic laws and avoiding obstacles and collisions with other driverless vehicles. The challenge was the first ever to test robots driving among other robots, and it was significantly harder than DARPA's 2005 desert Grand Challenge because of that interplay and the urban setting, according to race officials.

Despite skepticism about how the robots would perform, 6 of the 11 finalists-- including teams from MIT, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania--crossed the finish line. Yet CMU, Stanford and Virginia Tech displayed the most competent driving skills and finished in the allotted six hours, so the race came down to speed, according to DARPA.

CMU's Boss, a modified 2007 Chevy Tahoe, finished the course about 20 minutes faster than Stanford's Junior--an autonomous driving VW Passat. Boss averaged about 14 miles per hour over about 55 miles. It crossed the finish line only minutes after Junior, but Boss started at least 20 minutes later in the challenge. Virginia Tech crossed the finish line third.

Red Whittaker, CMU's team leader, said that the win is all about inspiring people and changing beliefs. "Once the perception of what's possible changes it never goes back. This is a phenomenal thing for robotics."

ORO GRANDE, Calif.--Three robots finished the DARPA Urban Challenge within the allotted time Saturday, a new milestone in the development of self-driving vehicles.

In the running for the $2 million first prize and $1 million second prize are Stanford University's robotic VW Passat, Virginia Tech's modified Ford Escape Hybrid, and Carnegie Mellon's autonomous Chevrolet Tahoe. These teams finished the urban challenge's three missions within the allotted six hours and without significant problems.

CMU's driverless car, Boss, crossed the finish line a couple of minutes after Stanford's Junior, but the robot started nearly 40 minutes after Stanford.

(Credit: Stefanie Olsen/CNET Networks)

Other teams, including the Ben Franklin Racing Team's robotic Toyota Prius, also completed the course, but it's uncertain whether it crossed the finish line in time given various stops in the race.

DARPA plans to name the winners Sunday after compiling and evaluating all of its data on the race vehicles, including data on their speed and compliance with basic traffic rules. DARPA officials had said that the fastest car wouldn't necessarily win if it didn't pass all of the driving rules.

But DARPA Director Tony Tether said that he hadn't seen anything egregious among the first three finalists.

"We have a winner," Tether said in an interview with CNET News.com here at the former George Air Force Base.

Stanford University's robot car Junior crossed the finish line first, but it's unclear whether it will take first prize like it did in the 2005 Grand Challenge, a 132-mile race across the Nevada desert.

CMU's robot Boss followed Junior across the finish line a couple of minutes later, but Boss had started the race as much as 40 minutes after Junior left the starting gate. It was scheduled to leave the starting gate first early Saturday, but it experienced technical problems involving interference with its Global Positioning System, thanks to a local Jumbotron. So CMU gained significant time throughout its three required missions in the day.

Virginia Tech's team, VictorTango, crossed the finish line third. The team was first to leave the starting gate around 8 a.m. and it completed its first two missions first.

ORO GRANDE, Calif.--After two hours in the race, three teams have fallen out of the DARPA Urban Challenge, leaving eight driverless cars to finish the urban course.

So far, Team Oshkosh, Team Annieway, and Intelligent Vehicle Systems have been eliminated from the challenge for various reasons.

Oshkosh Truck's TerraMax truck is eliminated from the race after nearly running into an old shopping center.

(Credit: Stefanie Olsen/CNET Networks)

Team Oshkosh, a more than 24,000 pound Oshkost truck, nearly ran into an old shopping center here at the former George Air Force Base after it ran over a parking lot curb. The team of Intelligent Vehicle Systems, a collaboration with Honeywell, Ford, and Delphi, had difficultly negotiating what to do at a stop sign.

Without those three teams, Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon are among the eight teams remaining in the race.

A little after 10 a.m. PDT, Virginia Tech's VictorTango team completed its first mission in the challenge, after which it moved back to the starting shoot. Stanford University's robot Junior had already completed its first route, too.

After finishing a mission, the robot receives another mission definition file, or MDF, a USB connector with waypoints on the course to guide the robot's basic navigation. Teams must complete three missions total in six hours.

As Virginia Tech hit a milestone, the team of the University of Central Florida hit something else. The robot, Knight Rider, ran into an abandoned house on the course. It remains to be seen whether Knight Rider will be cut from the contestants.

ORO GRANDE, Calif.--This is the experiment of all robot experiments.

In 30 minutes, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will unleash 11 driverless cars on a 10-plus mile course here at the former George Air Force Base, as part of its $3.5 million robot race, the Urban Grand Challenge. It will be the first time DARPA has tested fully autonomous cars (with "no animals or midgets inside") driving on a course with other robots, as part of a test of the technology's capabilities as well as its safety, according to Norman Whitaker, DARPA Urban Challenge program manager.

DARPA's Norman Whitaker

(Credit: Stefanie Olsen/CNET Networks)

"This is truly the first time we've taken robots and watched them interact with other robots," Whittaker said here Saturday before the start of the race. "They have not interacted so far."

As part of the competition, the robot cars must complete several driving missions within six hours at the closed air force base, which the government currently uses for military operations training in urban environments. The base is much like an environment where the government hopes to deploy autonomous cars by 2015 to complete missions like checking fence borders or clearing airport paths at night, Whittaker said.

On Saturday, the cars will be tested on driving skills much like they were 15-year-olds taking their California driver's exam for the first time, he said. They'll be faced with navigating four-way intersections, merging in traffic, and driving on the highway. About 100 officials from DARPA will be out on the field in safety boxes with ticket books, compiling data on how the cars perform and whether they're following basic traffic rules.

The robots may go as fast as 40 miles per hour on the highway, but watching the driverless cars move even at 10 miles per hour, "it catches your attention," Whitaker said. If there are difficulties on the course, each robot car has a so-called e-stop system installed that lets DARPA stop the car at any time.

In 2006, DARPA chose nine "track A" teams to receive $1 million in grant money to support their development efforts. Of those teams, only seven made it to the finals here Saturday. The seven track A finalists include Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Honeywell Aerospace Advanced Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oshkosh Truck, Stanford University, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

The four teams with $1 million from the government that didn't make the cut: Autonomous Solutions from Utah; the California Institute of Technology, The Golem Group from Santa Monica, Calif., and Raytheon from Tucson, Ariz.

DARPA plans to name a winner (or not) on Sunday after compiling all of the data it collects from the race. That's no small task, given the information coming from 100 officials and data from cameras following the vehicles, Whitaker said.

"We'll take an accounting of all the data this evening and weight the evidence," he said.

Even if a vehicle finishes all of the missions within six hours, it's conceivable that the team wouldn't win if the robot violates traffic rules.

"We're looking for the best system, not the fastest system," he said.

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A robotic truck, Prius, and family sedan will be among the 11 autonomous vehicles trying to pass their driving test this weekend in Victorville, Calif.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said Thursday that it has selected the finalists for its Urban Grand Challenge, a robotic race at the former George Air Force Base with $3.5 million in total prize money. The 11 teams, whittled down from 35 semifinalists in qualifying rounds this week, will compete Saturday. They must drive a 60-mile urban course with live traffic in less than six hours.

Among those in the race are: Stanford Racing Team, the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge winner; the Ben Franklin Racing Team, from Philadelphia; MIT; Carnegie Mellon University's Tartan Racing team; Team Cornell from Ithaca, N.Y.; and Team Oshkosh Truck.

Those eliminated in the qualifying rounds included: Team CalTech; Princeton University's team; Team CajunBot from Louisiana; and Team Gray from Metairie, La., which was one of the robots that performed best in summer trials.

"The (qualifying event) tested the vehicles capability to merge into traffic, navigate four-way intersections, respond to blocked roads, pass on-coming cars on narrow roads, and keeping up with traffic on two- and four-lane roads. In fact, the only major difference between the (qualifiers) and the final event is that other robotic vehicles will be part of the traffic in the final event," DARPA Director Tony Tether said in a statement.

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For all the times we saw the likes of KITT and Herbie get themselves around the TV screen under their own steam, there is still something simultaneously unnerving and thrilling about watching a car drive right past you with no one on board--for real. To see a driverless car stop at a busy intersection, wait for a gap in the traffic, and then make a left-hand turn makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

We were on site yesterday in Victorville, Calif., where 36 teams are participating in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, a contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense that requires autonomous vehicles to operate in a simulated urban environment. We got a close-up view of the action from two of the testing areas and a look inside the pits of the various teams as they worked on their cars in during the national qualifying event (NQE) for the final race on November 3. Check out our slide show of the DARPA NQE here.

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Excitement is building in the world of car tech as the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge approaches. The event, which is the third and most demanding to date in the DARPA Challenge series, requires driverless vehicles to perform mock military supply missions completely autonomously. Over a 60-mile course, the robotic cars will be required to merge into moving traffic, navigate traffic circles, negotiate busy intersections, and avoiding obstacles. Thirty-five teams will compete in the Grand Challenge semifinals taking place between October 26 and 31, with 20 vehicles going on to compete in the final race on November 3. Check out our roundup of a selection of semifinalists, including teams from Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT.

Caltech enters Alice in the DARPA Urban Challenge.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

CNET News.com reports on and posts photos of Caltech's entrant for the DARPA Urban Challenge. This Ford E-350 van, named Alice, is rigged with GPS, LIDAR, and other sensors, the data from which is processed by Caltech's custom programming. The goal for Alice is to negotiate an urban course designated by DARPA without a driver. This Urban Challenge is a new twist on DARPA 2005 Grand Challenge, which ran through the desert. In the Urban Challenge, cars will have to follow basic street rules, like staying in their lanes and obeying traffic signs and signals. The race will be run in Southern California, near Victorville, on November 3. We will offer full coverage of the qualifying events and the race as they happen.