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The European Grand Challenge
An anonymous reader writes "A European version of the DARPA Grand Challenge is being held in Germany next month. Instead of a race through the desert, the EU challenge is split into three events. Urban, non-urban, and landmine detection will be the 'courses', with multiple winners in each event. Interestingly Sebastian Thrun, winner of last year's Challenge, has been forbidden from taking part despite being a European citizen." From the article: "The trials will take place in and around Hammelburg, a mockup of a town used by the German military for training exercises. In the non-urban course the robots will have to contend with a one-kilometer route containing ditches, barbed wire fences, cattle guards, fires, narrow underpasses, and inclines of up to 40 degrees. The urban and landmine 500-meter trials will require the robots to negotiate doorways, stairs, partially collapsed buildings, and poor visibility from smoke or partial lighting. Along the way, they will also have to search for designated objects and report their findings back to base."
I hear the french are planning to demonstrate for the first time at this event that they can build military vehicles that don't just travel in reverse. According to Phillip Chirac, "We believe the unmanned nature of these vehicles will make this possible."
Because it's about image, not results.
They want their own GPS system, even though we have one already. They want their own space program, even if it isn't cost efficient.
Next they'll want an EU liberty statue.
>80 column hard wrapped e-mail is not a sign of intelligent
>life
No, it smacks of european "me-too"ism. Which frankly is unbecoming to the continent which brought us modern science.
BTW, what did you think the "D" in "DARPA" stood for anyway?
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
"Or could it be, I don't know, that the Europeans feel a bit uneasy with such a commercially and strategically important piece of infrastructure in U.S. hands?"
Bullshit. Galileo is the lead-in, the EU ad to the world, 'see, we're the US alterative'. The EU isn't going to go to war with the US, the system is not so much for them, but they WILL sell their equipment to any country that forsees conflict with the US. iow, the EU is selling GPS for economic reasons, hardly the primary reason the US turns off GPS to nations.
Nice to see the EU brainwashing working on you. Fact is, EU is trying to play both sides--speaking like they are generally US friendly but promoting themselves as the US alternative. They're doing this successfully, and for now, until the US position is seriously undermined or until they hold the dominant position, they will play the two-faced position.
What you stated re GPS is the excuse they are pushing. Why? Galileo was planned pre-9/11. Just that post-9/11 was great for the EU to load up and sell it to the world. Yet the EU still hasn't completed Galileo yet. See, GPS is really the EU again presenting it as a US alternative. Tech is the new monument; having their own system shows the world they are independent from us, because the EU has been selling themselves as a US alternative. Their original reasons was that Galileo was a better sytem; how twisted their reasoning now is. (Having a separate GPS system means that during conflicts, any other nation can use their system against us. That suits the EU well; it's a backstab move)
Half of their big projects are exact copies in areas where they had not dominated--GPS, their space program, the huge Airbus plane (vs. Boeing), etc. While interesting, some of their projects are not exactly sane. Airbus's smaller planes are nice is fine but that massive plane appears to be a bust. Their space program is small but has some really innovative projects. Their GPS system...not sure yet. Technically, it looks good, and has better performance, but it *still* hasn't been completed yet.
And where they can't compete, they've exacted what are effectively nationalistic trade embargos, adopting regulations that purposefully exclude US products which dominate the marketplace. iow, they gave their EU companies the regs early leading to lead times, forcing US products off the shelves until they can be reformulated. This was a plain-faced lie, as the new regs had nothing to do with actual safety.
Friends you say? Hardly. They used us when they were fearing Soviet invasion while they rebuilt, and with the USSR's collapse, they no longer need us. 9/11 was the perfect scenario for them to promote themselves as the anti-US but good western alternative, playing on the sentiments.
The effect is apparent in comments like yours. See, disagreements between the US and Europe has occurred for decades. It just wasn't aired out as anti-nation sentiment. Now, whatever decision we make that they disagree with, they play up. So as much as we may disagree with the world, they are using every instance to raise and the anti-US sentiment, benefiting them.
Unfortunate that it even apparently works domestically to those who disagree with present US policy, but don't kid yourself. There is disagreement, and there is undermining. The EU is undermining. They know even when it backfires (go between with Iran) the damage is not as great as the gain when it works.
To those of us paying attention, hearing about Thrun being excluded from competition is the same old of recent years given the EU's anti-US behavior. It's little wonder the US has been more focused on NAFTA and relationships with the USSR, India, and China.
*yawn*