The only 'bot to finish the course was the "headless HumVee" from Carnegie Mellon University, the odds-on-favorite. Rumor has it Saturday's race may be shortened to 150 miles from the original 210-300 miles.
Wired reports that the Palo Verde High School principal was in the stand and the school's entry "veered and headed right toward the principal before it hit a wall. It was like something out of Animal House."
You can find more information about the Grand Challenge at their website or at SCORE International.
DARPA PRESS RELEASE:
DARPA Announces the Results from First Day of Grand Challenge QID
Palos Verdes High School Road Warriors and Team Cal Tech Complete Partial Runs of the Qualifying Course
Fontana, CA – Teams from Palos Verdes High School and California Institute of Technology completed partial runs of the Qualification, Inspection and Demonstration (QID) course for the DARPA Grand Challenge on the first day of the QID at California Speedway in Fontana, CA. Six other teams also attempted the QID course but experienced minor difficulties and will make further attempts to complete the course during the week.
“Today we endeavored to do something that has never been attempted before and we were reminded that the Grand Challenge is a fitting name for this event,” said DARPA director, Dr. Anthony Tether. “The performance of Palos Verdes High School and Team Cal Tech shows that this can be done, and since this is just a half-day of activity, we are confident that the other teams will make the necessary adjustments to their vehicles.”
The results of the attempts of today’s group break down as follows:
Palos Verdes High School and Team Cal Tech partially completed the course before stopping to make mechanical adjustments.Team CIMAR and Digital Auto Drive (DAD) had unsuccessful attempts to start due to instrumentation problems.
AI Motorvators, The Golem Group and Team Phantasm passed on their turns but will take them later in the week.
A total of 20 teams out of 25 invitees attended the opening day’s events. The remaining 12 teams will begin their qualifying efforts Tuesday, including:
Axion Racing Team ENSCO
The Blue Team Team LoGHIQ
Red Team Team Spirit of Las Vegas
Rover Systems Team Terrahawk
SciAutonics I Team TerraMax
SciAutonics II Virginia Tech
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