Pentagon hosts DARPA Urban Challenge

DARPA, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, held an event with Urban Challenge Vehicles. Urban Challenge Vehicles are vehicles that are unmanned and function off of laser and GPS systems. It is a joint project among automakers, the department of defense, universities and others. On November 3, 2007, the Urban Challenge was held in California in which multiple vehicles participated on a course that was filled with traffic obstacles, pedestrians and other vehicles.

There were six top finishers from 2007 and the first place winner took a two million dollar prize, second place a one million dollar prize and third place received a half million dollar prize. The race was 53 miles long and was held in Victorville, former home to George Air Force Base. The total budget for the cars ranged from one to three million, depending on the type of vehicle and technology it is equipped with. One of the vehicles on display was powered by only five mac minis. This project is taking place because of the Presidential mandate that by 2015, the military has to have a certain number of unmanned vehicles.