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Six Pentium M Linux computers in the center running Bayesian algorithms, strategy and control. Two vision pre-processing computers on the right. Volkswagen exposed the drive-by-wire interface to the development team.

This is Stanford’s autonomous robotic vehicle that will compete in the DARPA Grand Challenge in October, racing across the desert at 30mph without any human intervention.

12 responses to “pimp my ride”

  1. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    the only thing I can think of looking at this picture is about ourselves in 10 years, laughing hard at this photo, just as we laugh today about this one:

    sorry i can´t make any better input…

    Reply
  2. The Rocketeer Avatar
    The Rocketeer

    I’ll be rooting for Stanford this year. I really enjoyed seeing the results of this event from the competition last year. One of the more interesting entries was a motorcycle with a gyroscopic balancing mechanism.

    Reply
  3. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Alieness: very true. I think they would agree too. There is so much still to learn. Unlike what we see in the movies, the complexity of getting a car to be able to drive itself from place to place is humbling.

    Rocketeer: I think that was Berkeley…. a bold strategy to say the least. It fell over at the starting gate.

    Reply
  4. Acid Zebra Avatar
    Acid Zebra

    Still, nice rig 😉

    Reply
  5. BenODen Avatar
    BenODen

    Ooooh. Very cool. I’m thinking I need to go surfing to find out about the qualifiers… Ok, Sept 27.. Still a ways off..

    I wonder if we’ll have a winner this year. This seems like a strongly funded team, but they’re going on a very high complexity sensor solution again, which would seem harder to integrate. But I’m just a generalist…

    Reply
  6. Sam Scholes Avatar
    Sam Scholes

    May the team with the least money and the most ingenuity win.

    Reply
  7. Trajan K Avatar
    Trajan K

    interesting idea that they had for the DARPA challenge.

    Reply
  8. travísimo Avatar
    travísimo

    Congrats to Stanford. Great job!

    Reply
  9. BenODen Avatar
    BenODen

    Wowee, congrats to your alma mater Steve! Did you have any involvment in the team?

    What a feat, and it was a real race with multiple finishers. I’ll have to look up coverage soon. I wanna know how long it would take a good human to drive this course. 20 MPH is pretty agressive on many 4wd roads.

    Edit: Yep, pretty agressive driving. This was said of the 6th place team, enesco, that was averaging and catching up with the cars ahead of it until it came down with a flat tire:
    The chase vehicle officials reported that following DEXTER was thrilling. DEXTER knew exactly where to go, and possibly reached speeds of approximately 40 mph, making it challenging for their vehicle to keep close. After DEXTER exited the last tunnel, the chase officials believed that DEXTER started to exhibit some unusual behaviors and then suffered the flat tire. Team members are investigating to see what might of happened.

    (http://www.ensco.com/news/111)

    I can just hear the guys in the chase car, muttering about their aching butts! *laugh*

    Reply
  10. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Ben: No, I was not part of the team. I was just cheering from afar. During the race, I happened to be at a robot show in San Jose. They interrupted everything and announced "history being made" over the loudspeakers.

    Here is some inside flavor from a Stanford guy who was there:

    "It was a great day. The morning was cool, Prim and proper. It broke dramatically as the sun rose and painted the skies overhead in blues and oranges. Stanley performed perfectly, as far as we could tell, and even didn’t chafe at being called ‘she’ by the announcer… We held our breath as we watched Stanley negotiate the beer bottle gulch, with nary a burp. We cheered as he crossed the finish line (and cheered again as CM’s two cars crossed also–it was a good competition).

    Autonomous cars have come a long way from the Popular Mechanics fantasies that I read as a teenager. Congratulations on Stanford’s contribution to the state of the art."

    Reply
  11. ~The Olis In 'Consin~ Avatar
    ~The Olis In ‘Consin~

    I’m thinking this van is gonna launch into space any minute!!!!
    "BABY…..I got junk in my trunk!" theme at:
    The World Through My Eyes

    Reply
  12. Ksionic Avatar
    Ksionic

    wow….

    Reply

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