Mar 31, 2008

Racing without Race Drivers

Well, it might be tough on those TV and print reporters seeking post-race interviews. But then again, it might not be too different from interviewing Tony Stewart on those occasions when he’s ticked off -- which seems pretty frequent these days. What are we talking about? A race with no race drivers. That’s just what the Toyota Grand Prix has scheduled as one of its support races for its April 18-20 race weekend.

“Junior,” “Boss” and “Ben” are entirely robotic vehicles, and they are scheduled to be part of the Grand Prix’s groundbreaking Green Power Prix-View event highlighting futuristic alternative-energy vehicles. The three cars will be competing in the Robotic Grand Prix at noon on Sunday, April 20. Each car will take one lap of the 1.97-mile, 11-turn circuit, with the quickest time deciding the winner.

Boss is a 2007 Chevy Tahoe engineered by students and faculty at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, home of the famed Robotics Institute and winner of the $2 million first-place prize in the recent Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Urban Challenge, held in charming Victorville, Calif. Junior, a 2006 VW Passat Wagon modified by the students and faculty at Stanford University, captured the $1 million second-place prize. Ben, a Toyota Prius built by students and faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and Lehigh University, finished sixth at the DARPA Challenge and thus is the long shot to win the Long Beach race.

The U.S. military says it plans to operate one-third of its vehicles without drivers by the year 2015, for safety’s sake, and the DARPA competition is designed to help integrate car safety and robotics toward that goal. More than 30 teams entered the most recent competition, including teams from Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Berlin, Germany (which is not a university, FYI). All robotic vehicles had to navigate traffic circles, avoid moving obstacles and merge into lanes without human intervention -- all the while obeying California traffic laws.

During the Urban Challenge, Boss averaged 14 mph, a shade faster than Junior’s 13.7 mph, while both hit speeds of more than 30 mph. All three vehicles featured an impressive array of electronic equipment options you won’t find on your family sedan, such as a Velodyne HD Lidar that looks in every direction 10 times a second, combining 64 individual lasers into millions of 3-D points at up to 65 meters -- almost as cool as your eyes.

The Green Power Prix-View will feature extensive, weekend-long displays starring Junior, Boss and Ben and a wide variety of other alternative-energy vehicles, including on-circuit activities. Fans attending the 34th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will have the opportunity to participate in an alternative-energy vehicle ride/drive program, also scheduled for Sunday, April 20, on the east side of the Grand Prix circuit.