DARPA's Grand Challenge Autonomous Road Race Much More Popular Than Expected

from the too-many-entrants dept

We wrote about DARPA's "Grand Challenge" road race when it was first announced and then a few months ago. In the meantime, it appears that it's really struck a nerve with a lot of people. DARPA says they've received 106 applications to participate, which is a lot more than they expected. They thought there would be much fewer (under 30) applicants, and that many wouldn't pass initial scrutiny. The plan was to announce the entrants by now, but with so many applications, the review process is taking much longer than expected. The Challenge, if you haven't been following the story, is to build a completely autonomous vehicle that can drive on-road and off, which will have to complete a 250 mile course, all by itself, that will only be revealed two hours before the race begins.
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