The official winner of the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge has been crowned, and it's Stanford University's robotic
Volkswagen Touareg, a.k.a. Stanley. The completely autonomous Touareg completed its 132-mile run in the Mojave desert
in 6 hours, 53 minutes and 8 seconds, almost 12 minutes faster than the runner up. The prize: a cool $2 mil.
The crowning of Stanley occurred a day later than scheduled in order to give slower moving vehicles time to finish the
race. Last year's inaugural race was distinguished by the failure of every single contestant to even make it in sight
of the finish line. In order to inspire contestants, the booty was raised from $1 million to $2 million for this year's
challenge. DARPA is the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, so we should expect Stanley to see active
duty on the front line shortly.
[Source: Volkswagen and
Reuters]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Adam Troy @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
It was actually 132 miles.
lithous @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
Hitler would be proud. The "people's car" will do service in the American Army. Good stuff. Why not, the Germans own Jeep. Of course an American university modified it and VW will get gobs of credit. I'm sure the 4 wheel drive system and other components of the Trailblazer/Envoy could never have been modified by Stanford for the American gov't based project.
I hope VW puts Onstar like technology in the Touareg and just as we are going to do something with it against someone Germany has dealings with the Germans deactivate it and we realize, maybe we should have used a different supplier.
Why didn't we just let VW engineer the whole thing. You mean to tell me a group of college kids are smarter than VW engineers, screw that. Hitler mandated that only smart, blonde hair, blue eyed people work for them. It is in the VW constitution, I'm pretty sure of it. Hell, I saw the commercials for the new VW with umbrella in the door, they can do anything. Screw Stanford, the middlemen, give VW all the money to do a better job.
Billfred @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
#2, what the hell?
We beat the Germans. That's in the past. Like 60 years past.
One of the reasons they picked the Touareg was because you can drive it by wire. A little hacking here and there, and the computer can handle it without as many linkages and other pesky little things that break when you're racing for two million bucks.
Besides, this is step one. You can't fit a lot of supplies in a Touareg. I'm sure the Pentagon will figure out how to adapt it to Humvees and other bigger/meaner/capable-of-hauling-more-stuff vehicles by 2015 (when Congress wants 1/3 of their ground vehicles autonomous).
Tal Danzig @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
lithous, your comments are both stupid and offensive. If you had a point somewhere there it was lost in all of the racism.
lithous @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
I love those that state that was 60 years ago like it was 160 or 1060 years ago. This is my favorite reply to "that was 60 years ago"... Stand in front of the Holocaust Museum and tell the people going in there that same statement.
One of the main reasons I can't stand VW is that they should have changed their name IMO. I honestly feel like it will always be a tribute to him as long as they have that name.
All this type of thing does is perpetuate the idea that German engineering is superior. Point blank. It will probably sell a ton more Touaregs before it will ever be used in a real military situation.
Call me racist all you want but I have never harmed anyone because of their race. I'd rather have a car built by a person of color in Detroit than a Caucasian in Europe. So, redefine what you call me but it is not racist. They teach kids in school that diversity is a great thing yet we have to hear how Japanese build better things and the Germans engineer better things. Which is it, does a diverse society like the U.S. do better or a more mono-race based country like Japan? I'm getting mixed signals here.
John Neff @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
Let's try and keep the topic on cars everyone. Thanks.
Colin @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
I think what is truely amazing about Stanley is that it not only finished the race perfectly (minus the bird poop incident) but it also finished ALL of the NQE events perfectly, with 100% accuracy, not a single one of the other bots managed that...
All with common VW Touareg...
starlightmica @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
#2: are you diminishing the role of the Stanford robotics team that did all the engineering and testing, the Intel-based Pentium hardware (7 CPU's) that did the driving, or the fact that DARPA has been pouring R&D money into Stanford & CMU's (2nd and 3rd place) robotics labs for years? There was another Touraeg that didn't make it to the finals.
American manufacturers built the platforms for the other finishers: 2nd and 3rd places were taken by HMMV/Hummer H1-based vehicles, 4th place by a Ford Escape Hybrid, and the 5th finisher used a 6 wheeled Oshkosh Truck that's already used by the military.
Lithous @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
I stand corrected. The Touareg is much better than the Trailblazer/Envoy (at least in a luxury test): http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=15&article_id=1798&page_number=8
But even respected car mags make interesting references.
#8 I think #7 (who is probably trying to over emphasize because my comment) is what the average person will get out of the competition to some extent. My problem is the gov't funding that. Upto the early/mid 1990's DOD work had to try/use mostly U.S. products in contracts.
Sorry I was being too sarcastic earlier but this forum is full of "GM is lazy" because they make a car with an unattractive interior stuff. Sarcasim is rampant on these blogs.
Richard @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
Y'all settle down about the fact that it was a VW. The platform doesn't matter, it is the robotics inside that are driving it. The military spec HMMWV has a setup similar to the Touareg: limited slip differentials on each axle, open in the middle diff, with lockers on all three. Just guessing here, but I think the Stanford team wanted to get an automobile with capabilities as close as possible to the milspec HMMWV. Their choices were probably: Mercedes G-Wagen, VW Touareg, Hummer (civilian spec, not the same), or aftermarket modifications on other 4WD platforms. The Department of Defense isn't buying the vehicle, they're buying the robotics and the technical know-how. And I guarantee you that they won't use Volkswagens.
Morris @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
I pretty much agree with Richard. The competition is all about the robotics and their future as replacements for soldiers on dangerous convoy missions and the like. Though I do think the competition shows the VW Suv to not be a purely fluff Suv that is for show. The VW performed well in fairly harsh conditions, given the heat and sand. The robotics inside really did the work though, and I think it's a step forward in the robotics realm.
ari finkelman @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
bad caption... K.I.T.T (not K.I.T.)
Knight Industries Two Thousand ;)
Lithous @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/prnewswire/2005/10/09/prnewswire200510092024PR_NEWS_B_MAT_NY_NYSU024.html
#8 & #10 I'm not quite seeing the same story as y'all tell after reading the Forbes article (many people read that mag btw). It looks like all but some software is VW technology and they will get access to all of it. I still think VW is making out like a bandit, technology paid for and look who is first on the Forbes headline of the article. #8 good to know we poured more money into VW for this than the $2M prize, though.
md @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
Lithous, wow, just wow.
First of all there were almost 40 different entries from trucks and SUVs to dune buggys. Two Hummers also finished to course behind the VW. So what if they used a VW, they probably sponsered the temam. They probably would have won if they had used any other truck or SUV.
"I'm sure the 4 wheel drive system and other components of the Trailblazer/Envoy could never have been modified by Stanford for the American gov't based project."
First of all, there is not a whole lot that can be done to modify a 4WD transfer case. You have 2hi 4hi and 4low. for this contest full time 4wd and AWD would be prefered, and VW and Hummer have great full time 4wd and AWD transfer cases.
"You mean to tell me a group of college kids are smarter than VW engineers, screw that"
Who said that? many automakers are working on remote robotics for cars, but this was a contest that did not involve automakers.
" honestly feel like it will always be a tribute to him as long as they have that name. "
What is offensive about Volkswagen, literally peoples' car or car of the people? most people see VW as a symbol of the rebirth of European industry after WWII. Did you know Henry Ford was anti-Semitic and he won an award from the Nazis? So yeah, all those F-150s they sell are also a tribute to what Hitler and the Nazis stood for.
"Call me racist all you want but I have never harmed anyone because of their race"
Not everyone in the KKK has lynched somebody, I guess they aren't racist either.
"It will probably sell a ton more Touaregs before it will ever be used in a real military situation"
You seem to be under the impresion that whoever won this race gets a DoD contract. This is a contest to promote robotics research, nothing more. All DoD contracts will go to domestic manufacturers.
Richard @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
Lithous,
The US government acquires goods based on a service schedule. The laws and regulations of government contracting specify that the engineering requirements and blueprints belong solely to the US government upon acceptance of the design contract's final delivery. From there, the US government contracts with many suppliers/manufacturers to build the products using the government's newly acquired blueprints. All parts, regardless of manufacturer, must be interchangeable. So if GM sources one of these robotic cars and the, say, steering unit fails, a replacement steering unit from any manufacturer on the Schedule must fit and work with the GM robotic car.
So, yes, VW is getting a big one-time payoff from selling their blueprints to the government, but the real winners are the manufacturers who get sourcing contracts awarded from the government's schedule. The US government is required by law to source its goods and services from American companies first, and foreign companies only as a very last resort. Even among American companies, no one company is allowed to have a monopoly on the government schedule. To keep things fair, Government acquisition officers are required to rotate their sourcing companies every time they make a purchase.
To make you feel even better about it all, from the US government's perspective, this was an exceedingly small expenditure of funds. Contracts have to be at least $100 million to get any notice, and that's just the entry level. In the US Government, there are some weekly meetings, I kid you not, that cost $7 million. Whatever VW got, it is paltry compared to what the American manufacturers will get when the specs come up on the schedule.
Lithous @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
There is a difference, as I understand it, Hitler ordered the building of the "people's car" and coined that phrase (or someone in his group). I'm about about 90% sure that name (and the original car) would not have existed in it's current form without him. Maybe I am wrong.
Lynched seems a little stronger than the word I used, "harmed". Many KKK people have harmed others because of race though. Apparently mentally I have harmed some people though. It was a bad time. Sorry I can't bring it up in this free country of ours.
You know from reading posts on this blog site that 80% of the people are not going to agree with you that just any old 4 wheel drive could have done it. I was being sarcastic to prove a point, but I think most of the American car bashers actually believe that there is no way an American vehicle could do the course in any way close to the VW as #7 stated. Apparently no other vehicle did it 100%.
md @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
"You know from reading posts on this blog site that 80% of the people are not going to agree with you that just any old 4 wheel drive could have done it"
I never said any 4WD vehicle could do it; I believe that a 4WD T-Case would be a disadvantaged compared to AWD, and Fully independant suspension would be desirable, more so than live axles, because of the terrian. Of course a great engineer could do it by starting with nothing but some paper, pencil, and a ruler.
"Sorry I can't bring it up in this free country of ours."
I can't remember who said this, but it is one of my favortie quotes:
"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously."
Lithous @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
"What is offensive about Volkswagen, literally peoples' car or car of the people? most people see VW as a symbol of the rebirth of European industry after WWII."
http://www.answers.com/topic/volkswagen-beetle#wp-History
They changed the name of the city, very interesting stuff.
lithous @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
So for those of you who are clueless and ass-u-me things. No I don't go around saying the 'H' word all the time. I thought it was common knowledge the direct link and reason for existence of VW when I was fired up that our military is paying them. I don't use the 'H' word everytime Germany is mentioned. I really didn't realize so many were unaware of the particular facts involved here (I learned even more reading the link I gave above). If you still think I have no right to be offended with whole thing, it's a free country, more power to you.
BTW, md, you are correct you did not say any 4WD do it, you said this: "They probably would have won if they had used any other truck or SUV."
Open discussions are a great thing. Thanks, I've learned a lot.
Colin @ Dec 18th 2005 11:07PM
"I think #7 (who is probably trying to over emphasize because my comment) is what the average person will get out of the competition to some extent" Actually I was making a big deal of it (or if it seemed that way to you) it is because I always thought of the Touareg as a typical wannabe off-roader built on a car chassis, as of now I stand corrected...
Oh and personally with enough tinkering I think just about any true 4X4 vehicle could have been as successful as Stanley, regardless of what country it comes from...