Robotic SUV wins 'Urban Challenge'

Everyone knows that computer technology has progressed rapidly in the years since the end of World War II. The processing power of a decades-old computer that filled a room is now outclassed by the sort of toy your kid will pull out of a happy meal pack.

So take careful note of the Chevy Tahoe SUV pictured. It's an automotive Prometheus (or Frankenstein?), that represents the starting point for improved miniaturisation and integration of on-board electronics for vehicle guidance.

It looks ungainly because it's large and can pack a literal truckload of gear, but still move under its own motive power. And that's the point; it moves under its own motive power -- and on its own cognisance.

The Tahoe has just won the DARPA Urban Challenge. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is an agency that was formed by the US Department of Defense and 'invented' computer networking (which led eventually to the Internet), hypertext and graphic user interface systems, which we now know through Microsoft as the 'Windows' operating system.

The Urban Challenge is DARPA's latest venture, a medium for promoting vehicles that can navigate themselves through urban environments. You're unlikely to be astounded by the fact that DARPA is investigating such technology for its potential in battlefield applications.

We're already seeing self-guided cars happening on a limited scale, with radar-based cruise control systems that maintain a safe distance between the car and vehicles in front, plus there's the self-parking system that the Japanese have developed for cars such as the Lexus LS 600h. Link these two facilities to a sat-nav system and you're already well on the way to a car that can drive you home when you've been partying too hard.

The Tahoe, nicknamed 'Boss' after former GM pioneer Charles F. 'Boss' Kettering, was prepared by the Carnegie Mellon University 'Tartan Racing Team' (also pictured). Carnegie Mellon is based in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and has a long history of work in cybernetics. The university's propeller-heads have been working on artificial intelligence algorithms since the sixties.

Tartan Racing won the event on November 3, when 'Boss' successfully completed a mock-urban course approximately 100km in length -- with no human intervention. A combination of computer controls, radars, lasers and cameras contributed to the team's win, but it couldn't have happened without the software.

"This competition has significantly advanced our understanding of what is needed to make driverless vehicles a reality," said Larry Burns, GM vice president of R&D and Strategic Planning. 

"Imagine being virtually chauffeured safely in your car while doing your e-mail, eating breakfast and watching the news.  The technology in 'Boss' is a stepping stone toward delivering this type of convenience." 

"Safely" is the operative word in that context.

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