IT Conversations does a sweet job of covering Live! The DARPA Grand Challenge. With lots of 80s music thrown in there. I requested Autobahn von Kraftwerk, but I guess Doug Kaye doesn't have that in his collection :-)
It was the next best thing to being at the starting line. Doug: "Team ESKO out of the gate, really fast, looking good. - Oh, it fell on the side." All teams didn't make it to the finish line. Red Team and SciAutonics II got to mile 7.
My disappointment of the day of course was the Berkeley Motorcycle Team apparently wobbled a couple of yards and fell. They were offered another chance to start again, but withdrew :-( Well, better get Dean Kamen on board for next year. John Smart and I were joking on the phone that we would create a jazzed up Segway for the competition next year.
Some excellent posts on Slashdot:
Rough terrain's a bitch
- A guy on a mule has been evading the might and majesty of the United States Army in the Afghan mountains for over two years.
- And somehow he is dragging a dialysis machine with him...
- To be fair, they were looking for him in the region of Afghanistan known as Iraq.
- Osama bin Laden captured by Aibo. News at 11. :)
Really pathetic showing?
- Okay, someone feel free to correct me, but how did any of the competitors fail in this one? They only needed to get their entry to go 142 miles on autopilot... 142 miles across a completely barren plain, with very few obstacles. I would expect that a stock 4x4 truck would have gotten further with no modifications beyond a brick on the gas pedal and the steering-wheel locked to go straight.
This is *great* news!
It means that autonomous fighting machines are still some way off. I suspect that the first industrialized nation that develops autonomous fighting machines will take over the world (or at least have a damn good go).
That's so true: Once autonomous fighting is possible the bar to go to war is lowered even more. If no soldiers are coming back in body bags from the front line, the public will not care about that war.
Brick on the Accelerator
- One might think a brick jammed on the accelerator of a jeep or H2 might have a chance to make it 7 miles.
- Not without refueling, of course.
cyberrider == conscientious objector
Watching the live broadcast, the cyberrider just refuses to fight! The flagman waved the green go flag and instead of charging like a good infantryman it just threw itself down to the ground! Of course its from Berkeley so no that surprising I guess. [Actually the motorcycle was Team Blue]
Doug Kaye the host of the ITConversations broadcast promised to post a condensed version of the show later tonight. Check it out.
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