Stanford team clinches top spot in robot desert race

A Stanford University team won a US$2 million (Bt81.7 million) prize on Sunday for sending a modified Volkswagen across about 250 kilometres of rugged desert, guided only by sensors and computers in a race the Pentagon hoped would lead to a technological breakthrough in warfare. Twenty-three driverless vehicles were sent into the Mojave Desert on Saturday in a race sponsored by the Pentagonีs Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as Darpa.

After extending the race by a day to allow a slow-moving robotic vehicle to finish, the Stanford University vehicle, known as Stanley, was declared the winner of the grand challenge, with the quickest time of six hours and 54 minutes. Sebastian Thrun, leader of the Stanford team, said it had been a victory for the carีs future, predicting that all cars would one day be able to drive themselves. Darpa sponsored the race to spur development of driverless vehicles that one day could carry water, fuel and other supplies for the US military in war zones. In last yearีs inaugural race, also known as the grand challenge, every machine failed within sight of the starting line. The Pentagon decided to double the prize money and sponsor the event again this year. Organisers designed a more difficult course this year and an assortment of modified Humvees, sports utility vehicles, pick-up trucks and dune buggies were sent into the mountains and valleys in the Mojave to navigate man-made obstacles, tunnels and a dry lake bed. One vehicle broke down at the starting line and 17 others stopped moving at various points on the course.

Four made it back to the finish line to complete the race and one, a huge six-wheel lorry called TerraMax, was stopped overnight so it could make it to the finish line.