As sophisticated as machines are today, they still cannot navigate an
automobile through crowded city streets as well as experienced human
drivers. But the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is
working to change that with an eye toward sending automated robotic
ground vehicles into battle to evacuate wounded soldiers, collect
reconnaissance and carry out other dangerous missions.
This weekend DARPA, the U.S. Department of Defense's central research
and development arm, will move closer to that goal when it hosts the
final round of its 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, a competition testing
the driving prowess of experimental unmanned autos. The agency has
whittled the field down from 89 to 11 teams of gearheads, scientists
and students who will test their autonomous creations at the former
George Air Force Base in Victorville, Calif. The winner will drive away
with $2 million and those snagging second and third places will get $1
million and $500,000, respectively.
Unlike the DARPA Grand Challenges held in 2004 and 2005 in the Mojave Desert, this year's
competition tests whether a vehicle—which must run entirely on its own using a system of
sensors, global positioning systems and computers—can handle the types of driving conditions
that city dwellers face every day, such as changing lanes, merging onto roadways with
fast-moving traffic and traversing busy intersections. (Fortunately, they will not have to
contend with iPod-wearing pedestrians, cell phone–gabbing drivers or unpredictable cabbies.)

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