Darpa Bot Race "Boss"

How much of it is car and how much is driver?

from Car and Driver:

The GM/CMU Darpa entry is based on a 2007 Tahoe, dubbed 'Boss' for Charles 'Boss' Kettering, who touched off the electrification of the vehicle with his invention of the electric starter (Cadillac, 1911)."

from Wired's blog:

First to finish the 60-mile race full of intersections, traffic, turns, parking challenges, and straightaways, was Stanford University's VW Passat, named Junior. Carnegie Mellon's Chevy Tahoe, Boss, came next, at 1:45 p.m., followed two or three minutes later by Virginia Tech's Ford Escape hybrid, Odin."

and

Three autonomous vehicles crossed the finish line within the 6-hour time limit here at the DARPA Urban Challenge in Victorville, CA. DARPA director Tony Tether [himself] flagged the winning vehicles in as they completed the course two or three minutes apart."

Forbes calls it for Carnegie Mellon's "Boss":

Finishing in under six hours, Carnegie Mellon's robotic SUV edged out 'Junior,' Stanford's autonomous Volkswagen (other-otc: VLKAF.PK - news - people ) Passat, by around 20 minutes to win the race's $2 million top prize. Trailing them to the finish were four other driverless cars, whittled down from the 35 teams of ambitious roboticists that were invited to Victorville for the event sponsored by DARPA."

As the Bot drivers all had different starting times and as the bot driven vehicles each had different assigned tasks, the initial winner was not immediately clear.

When the dust finally settled and the tabulations were in, DARPA officially declared GM/Carnegie Mellon's "Boss" the $2m first prize winner.

As proof of concept, DARPA introduced robotic races in 2004.

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