VW Touareg: Winner of the DARPA Grand Challenge!

Stanford Racing Team's VW Touareg unmanned vehicle, the Roadrunner, was the first to cross the finish line of the 2005 Grand Challenge robot race sponsored by the Pentagon on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2005, in the Mojave Desert near Primm, Nev.

The diminutive, self-guided Volkswagen Touareg built by Stanford University's School of Engineering covered more than 131 miles of Nevada desert in seven hours Saturday to be the first vehicle to cross the finish line in the $2 million Grand Challenge robot race.

It marked the first time a robotic vehicle successfully finished the race within the 2-year-old event's 10-hour time limit.

But Stanley's creators were not allowed to walk off with the novelty check just yet.

Three other robotic vehicles -- two built by Carnegie Mellon University and the other by the Louisiana-based Gray team -- also finished the race and one other remained on the course as night fell. Since the prize goes to the team with the shortest time, and the time the robots spend in "pause" mode during the race does not count against them, the winner will not be officially declared until today.

It certainly seemed like the winner's circle at just before 2 p.m., as Stanley crossed the finish line to thunderous applause from the Stanford team, whose members wore blue shirts that matched the robot's paint job.

"We had a good day," said Stanford computer science professor Sebastian Thrun, after his team doused him with water and lifted him in the air.

"This is the most exciting thing going on in robotics right now," said Mike Montemerlo, who headed up the software team for the driverless vehicle.

"Stanley's quickly catching up to me in miles driven in its life," said David Orenstein, spokesman for Stanford's Engineering School. "He's logged a lot of miles in the desert, and the team has spent countless hours testing him."

Eighteen of the 23 robots in the field failed to finish Saturday's race, which was created in 2004 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to promote the development of new robotic technology for use by the military.

GermanCarBlog, VW Touareg

Source: Review Journal, photo by Associated Press

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