VW gets behind Stanley Jr., donates $5.75 million to Stanford
Stanford won the first ever DARPA Challenge -- a test of skill and endurance for autonomous vehicles -- in 2005 with a VW Passat wagon called Stanley. This year it came in second with a VW Passat Wagon called Stanley, Jr. Though the university didn't win the Challenge this year, it did win with VW, which has pledged $5.75 million over five years to fund VAIL: the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory at Stanford.
VAIL will house Stanford's CarLab, a research and teaching program that aims to "radically rethink the automobile in order to deliver unprecedented levels of safety and driver and passenger enjoyment." VW's own engineers will work with CarLab, as well as other academic groups housed at VAIL that explore computer science and electrical engineering, a mechanical engineering group working on cleaner engines and advanced dynamic control, and a communications group that is studying the "psychology of making cars safer and more enjoyable."
[Source: VW]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
James 10:58AM (11/20/2007)
Just a slight correction: Stanly the first was a Toureg.
Congratulations to Stanford, to bad our (University of CIncinnati) team didn't make it through to the final round this time around. Ah well, maybe next year (the official motto of all Cincinnati competitors).
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nissanfreak87 11:04AM (11/20/2007)
hey, at least we got the $421 million PACE grant, woo UC!
Billfred 11:42AM (11/20/2007)
Another correction: Nobody won the first DARPA Grand Challenge. Stanford won the second.
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chris 3:07PM (11/20/2007)
The best bot out there during the first Grand Challenge only made it 7 miles before going kaput.
Nick 12:10PM (11/20/2007)
Also, the original Stanley was a Touareg V10 TDI, not a Passat. This is because the original Grand Challenge was largely off road.
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SherbornSean 12:19PM (11/20/2007)
Stamford may have German money, but Carnegie Mellon has the trophy.
Go tartans!
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len simpson 2:44PM (11/20/2007)
there should be another darpalike challenge:
lighter, safer, simpler.
better mileage , fewer emissions & lower costs might occur.
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nissanfreak87 3:21PM (11/20/2007)
the amount of computers going into these thing kinda make it impossible to make them light and simple, but in the future it could happen, seeing as my cell phone has more computing power than a Saturn 5 rocket did
len simpson 3:30PM (11/20/2007)
I,m sorry , I was referring to the automotive world in general, not just electronic autonomisity
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