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DARPA Announces 11 Initial Teams To Compete in Grand (Urban) Challenge, Winners to Receive No Money |
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Written by William Cox
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Wednesday, 04 October 2006 |
DARPA has announced the 11 teams chosen in its "Track A" selection for competitors (PDF) for the new Urban Grand Challenge. These 11 teams are different from the second round selection, Track B, in that each team will recieve up to $1 million USD in development funds, with the requirement that they meet certain milestones and that DARPA will have some liscensing rights to any technology developed.
The 11 chosen teams include:
Autonomous Solutions , Young Ward, Utah
California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, Calif.
Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, Pa.
Cornell University , Ithaca, N.Y.
The Golem Group , LLC, Santa Monica, Calif.
Honeywell Aerospace Advanced Technology, Minneapolis, Minn.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, Mass.
Oshkosh Truck Corp., Oshkosh, Wis.
Raytheon, Tucson, Ariz.
Stanford University , Palo Alto, Calif.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.
Unfortunately for the rest of the teams chosen in the Track B picks, DARPA has announced that it will not be offering cash prizes due to new Government regulation. Read the note at the top of this press release (PDF).
Congress has changed the Secretary of Defense’s authorities and DARPA no longer has authority to carry out programs to award cash prizes. Therefore, DARPA has announced that the top three teams to finish the 60-mile Urban Challenge course in less than six hours will receive trophies rather than cash prizes.
I, for one, say this is a huge mistake on Congresses part (not the first, how about closing the borders?) and they'll regret it. How many teams do you think will enter when there is no cash incentive?
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