No Cash Prize for Next DARPA Grand Challenge

General Lee's Peking writes to mention an Associated Press article about a sad development in the DARPA Grand Challenge. Because of some new DoD-related legislation, the organization will no longer be able to award the $2 Million prize to grand challenge winners. It's not all bad, though; they still get a trophy. From the article: "The absence of a lucrative cash prize has forced some teams to retool their game plan and others to drop out. Some fear it would be harder to attract corporate sponsors and hurt media coverage of the race, which drew a throng of reporters last year and inspired a PBS documentary. 'The icing on the cake is gone,' said Ivar Schoenmeyr, team leader of California-based Team CyberRider, which is retrofitting a Toyota Prius hybrid."

Comments

Re:Is this really so bad?

[Salvance]

Just using today's technology, you could probably get pretty close to 100 mpg with a Prius, good lithium batteries, and additional solar powered charging (to eliminate need to plug-in the hybrid). Hand modifications would easily push the cost above $40K, but cheaply mass producing such a vehicle seems theoretically feasible, and certainly doesn't violate any laws of physics.