GM and Carnegie Mellon Bring Home the "Boss" in Driverless Vehicle Challenge
VICTORVILLE, Calif. (Nov 4, 2007) — The Carnegie Mellon University Tartan Racing Team, with its GM Chevrolet Tahoe “Boss” entry, claimed first prize today in the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Urban Challenge. The Urban Challenge is a competition between vehicles that drive themselves in a mock urban environment.
“This competition has significantly advanced our understanding of what is needed to make driverless vehicles a reality,” said Larry Burns, GM vice president of R&D and Strategic Planning. “Imagine being virtually chauffeured safely in your car while doing your e-mail, eating breakfast and watching the news. The technology in “Boss” is a stepping stone toward delivering this type of convenience.”
GM is focused on reinventing the automobile in ways that enhance driving safety and reduce traffic congestion, energy consumption and emissions,” Burns continued. “We look forward to integrating the technology we used in this race into our cars and trucks,and to ensuring future personal transportation is sustainable.”
In addition to GM and Carnegie Mellon University, the Tartan Team is supported by the following sponsors: Caterpillar, Continental AG, Intel, Google, Applanix, TeleAtlas, Vector, Ibeo, Mobileye, CarSim, CleanPower Resources, M/A-COM, NetApp, Vector, CANtech and Hewlett Packard.
Carnegie Mellon University, home of the world renowned
Robotics Institute, in
conjunction with General Motors
Corporation, the world’s largest automotive
united as Tartan
Racing to win the Urban Challenge.
Red Whittaker serves as team lead for the Urban Challenge
2007. Premiere
researchers from the Robotics Institute
faculty
are united as members of Tartan
Racing. The
l ongstanding
Carnegie Mellon-GM Collaborative Research
Lab
brings
hardware integration and system engineering
skills to the team.
Chris Urmson, the team's technology leader, directs a team
of
world-class
researchers, who have united to succeed in this
competition. These include Tony
Stentz, Martial Hebert, John
Dolan, Bryan Salesky, Raj Rajkumar, Dave Ferguson
and Paul
Rybski from Carnegie Mellon and Varsha Sedakar and
Bakhtiar
Litkouhi
from General Motors.
Other partners include Caterpillar, Continental AG, Intel, Google,
Applanix,
TeleAtlas, Vector, Ibeo, Mobileye, CarSim,
CleanPower
Resources, MA/COM,
NetApp, Vector CANtech
and
Hewlett Packard.