Stanley and the Conquest of the DARPA Challenge

geekboy_x writes "Wired has a great in-depth piece on the Stanford team that won the $2 million DARPA prize. If you remember last year's disaster - with most vehicles falling off the road in the first kilometer or so - this victory becomes all the more amazing. The fact that the Stanford team used a 'tailgating' strategy is the best surprise in the article."

Comments

Why not flying cars, then?

[Radres]

FTA: "He liked to point out that planes had been flying themselves since the 1970s. The public was clearly willing to accept being flown by autopilot, but nobody had tried the same on the ground."

Just give us our flying cars then already, damnit!

Re:Why not flying cars, then?

[jackb_guppy]

And in fact all AIR based accidents end up on the ground or below.

Finally!

[Spy der Mann]

Now all we need is a superstrong protective layer, a pursuit mode, and cool red lights on the front!

frickin' laser beams attached to their heads

[digitaldc]

Its lasers are constantly teaching its video cameras how to identify drivable terrain, and it knows that it could accelerate more.

Maybe one day it can use its lasers to eliminate obstacles, creating drivable terrain and enabling to accelerate more.

Re:Would a robot controlled car

[vertinox]

Would a robot controlled car try to straddle a squirrel running across the road like I do?

Yeah, but only to get a better shot with its mounted machine gun.