Slashdot Mirror


Still More on the DARPA Grand Challenge

The SF Chronicle has an in-depth story on the DARPA Grand Challenge, with emphasis on the several teams from the San Francisco area. The three teams covered are using a pickup truck, a six-wheeled all-terrain vehicle, and a self-balancing motorcycle...

31 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Re:FP by Jezza · · Score: 2, Funny

    So sad... Maybe you could setup a "userless firstpost!" ... But who'd fund it?

  2. which doesn't belong? by potpie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which of these three doesn't belong?
    a pickup truck,
    a six-wheeled all-terrain vehicle,
    and a self-balancing motorcycle

    --
    Esoteric reference.
    1. Re:which doesn't belong? by pvt_medic · · Score: 2, Funny

      i was hoping that they would have had a midget in the running too.

      --
      30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
      Score:5, Troll
    2. Re:which doesn't belong? by back_pages · · Score: 4, Funny

      DUH! The motorcycle doesn't belong because the other two have a composite number of wheels. What, you didn't know that?!

  3. What by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    no VW van?

  4. Windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    *insert joke about how blue screen of death will be literal here*

    1. Re:Windows by Wacky_Wookie · · Score: 2, Funny

      You mean Win-screen of death, don't you?

  5. I wanna enter! by challahc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do you think I could enter with a beat up buick and a brick on the accelerator?

    --
    01100010 01101001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101
    1. Re:I wanna enter! by 0mni · · Score: 3, Funny

      It might just win too.

    2. Re:I wanna enter! by marsbarboy · · Score: 3, Funny

      what about a segway - strap dean kamen to it...send the bastard out there..

      --
      The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
  6. pickup truck? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    so if that pickup truck had come from texas instead of SF would it have it's own computer controlled fully autonomous gun turret too?

  7. Re:rover by tonyr60 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe the ESA built Beagle with input from the British motor industry....

  8. A simple solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    Vehicles must cross 200 miles of rugged terrain between Barstow and Las Vegas in under 10 hours with no human assistance whatsoever.

    Leave the vechicle unlocked in a bad part of Barstow with the keys, a pile of Vegas casino chips and case of booze in the car.

    If no one watches the car, I predict at least 50% chance that it with disappear from Barstow and reappear in Vegas. (Or in a ditch on the way there.)

    1. Re:A simple solution by kfg · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wait a minute. Are you implying that there's a good part of Barstow?

      KFG

    2. Re:A simple solution by fenix+down · · Score: 4, Funny

      You can't stop there, that's bat country.

  9. When does the movie come out? by thecountryofmike · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cannonball run. For robots. Cool.

  10. Future scenario by LinuxGeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    The article mentions things like your rental car showing up from the airport all by itself, which I admit would be quite cool. It also makes me wonder about the first collision between two autonomous vehicles on a public highway. Would the programmers get the tickets? Lots more interesting questions to be answered when these things start selling...

    --

    Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
    1. Re:Future scenario by slashname3 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Actully I am wondering how you program the autonomoouos vehicle to flip other drivers off in traffic and honk the horn. And when they do collide with something do you program them to drive away or stay and yell at the other driver?

  11. another contest by benjonson · · Score: 5, Funny

    As a lover of the desert and card carrying member of Earth First, I thought I'd point out another contest that happens to be occurring on the same day. Its called "Bag the Unmanned Vehicle". Contestants compete to disable unmanned vehicles trashing desert flora and fauna for fun and prizes.

    --
    =-+
  12. No human assistance? by dj245 · · Score: 4, Funny
    Vehicles must cross 200 miles of rugged terrain between Barstow and Las Vegas in under 10 hours with no human assistance whatsoever.

    Of course the simple solution would be to give a monkey a quad bike. But don't give him a full-blown road vehicle, or he will turn it into a V8 intercepter and conquer the post-apocolyptic wasteland...

    --
    Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    1. Re:No human assistance? by Crypto+Gnome · · Score: 2, Funny

      Of course this only works because current-technology AIs haven't advanced enough to file suit because they're sentient.

      --
      Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
    2. Re:No human assistance? by payndz · · Score: 3, Funny
      the rules now say no living being can drive.

      One word: zombies!

      --
      You must think in Russian.
  13. Re:rover by Billy+the+Mountain · · Score: 4, Funny

    So in Nasa's case, an engineer might say that the rover is getting to close to a rock, and the team will stear it away

    Yeah, plus they have a week of meetings, planning sessions, etc. to decide whether the rock is really an obstacle worth diverting around or not.

    BTM

    --
    That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
  14. bat country... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Vehicles must cross 200 miles of rugged terrain between Barstow and Las Vegas

    Sweet Jesus! That's bat country. I suppose the poor bastards will figure that out soon enough.

    ?

  15. god jobo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    thanks to all of the people helping DARPA plan to kill people better, faster, cheaper!

    -1 Troll

  16. Re:rover by swb · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, it was a true pan-European effort:

    Italian looks, French engines and British electrical systems, with German price tags.

  17. Re:Some poor vehicle platform choices by BigBadBri · · Score: 5, Funny
    Already got house-sized bikes - they're called the Gold Wing.

    Now with a little stabilisation, and the Rising Sun emblazoned on the tank, I can just see hordes of kamikaze Gold Wings descending on the enemy and crushing them to death with their armchair seats, or maybe using the included stereo as an acoustic weapon...

    --
    oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
  18. Turing Test 2004 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Turing Test for 2004 goes like this... "Can you distinguish an autonomous computer controlled vehicle from some old lady driving to Vegas?"

  19. Difference between heaven and Hell by NecrosisLabs · · Score: 2, Funny

    In heaven:
    The Italians are the lovers
    The Swiss run the hotels
    The Germans are the mechanics
    The British are the police
    The French are the cooks.

    In Hell:
    The French run the hotels
    The British are the cooks
    The Italians are the mechanics
    The Swiss are the lovers
    The Germans are the police.

  20. Don't be a sloppy programmer for these by slashname3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I do not want to be stuck behind an autonomous car with its blinker on for 200 miles. The programmer that gets that wrong needs to be tied to the bumper of that vehicle!

  21. Re:The view from Team Overbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Sadly, we (Team Overbot) aren't going to be ready in time. We lost five members in January

    You should have known better than to choose Lorena Bobbitt for your project manager.