DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits - Jalopnik Comments

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

Moonz0r — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 12:10:08 EDT

@JWilly48519:
In regards to military desirability of destroying robotic trucks - I'm not so sure you're totally right. The first thing that came to my mind was that robotic trucks in a combat zone, while not becoming the targets of IED's in the traditional sense, would have the potential of being set up as traps.

A hostile force could potentially trap a robotic truck with barriers, then rig IT with IED's for the people who come to un-stuck the truck, or even attach an explosive device onto a robotic truck while its moving, then detonate it when it gets to its destination.

I think that if the design intent of robotic trucks *really* is to take human drivers out of harms way, then the designers/advocates/military better be thinking about the ways that robotic trucks could be used against them.

Moonz0r

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

JWilly48519 — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:02:02 EDT

@Novaload: Ummm, misunderstanding of the design goal. This technology, in a several-generations-further version of course, will be the basis for a new family of supply delivery trucks. Not the high end of military action, but the low end...the behind-the-scenes delivery convoys through potentially hot urban areas where it really makes no sense to expose human drivers to IEDs. All such trucks intentionally will be readily recognizable for what they are. It's militarily desirable for the bad guys to know the trucks are robotic. It may not make sense for the bad guys to spend their $$ on ordnance to kill a truck...they know that in the end, they can't make us run out of hardware. So far, it's been easy for them to score psychological points on us by taking out a human truck crew. The design intent is to eliminate that way of scoring on us.

JWilly48519

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

Bad Juju — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:19:32 EDT

Team Lux's Passat wins, if only for not looking like a gamer's overclocked rig..
Just needs a little more Evil.

Bad Juju

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

Turboner — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:38:08 EDT

Sick Lidar unit, yo! <-couldn't be helped

Turboner

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

rgseidl — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:55:11 EDT

@ dculberson -

agreed. They should have gone with a Superior Consort instead. Those things are bulletproof.

rgseidl

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

dculberson — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:45:07 EDT

You would think that a group of MIT engineers would have the sense to not pin all their ambitions on a Land Rover being able to operate reliably. What good is a million dollars in sensors if the coolant goes shooting out of the engine five miles into the course?

dculberson

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

gadgetfanatic — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:28:07 EDT

I have a question, what do they do wit the cars after the race is over?

gadgetfanatic

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

elwood — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:26:54 EDT

They've got to work first. And not that I'm saying the Lux car won't work, but you can only navigate as well as the sensory information you have. So the general rule of thumb is gonna be more sensors is better, but we'll have to see how it pans out. I agree that if they work equally well, then the more elegant solution is the better one, but the first step is to find a solution that even works, then you can go to work on simplifying/shrinking it.

elwood

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

NovaloadMissesPolar — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 12:59:46 EDT

You couldn't find two more extreme examples. I'm with the Lux--what's the point of a Robocar if it screams "Robocar" -- sitting duck target for a shoulder rocket?

NovaloadMissesPolar

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

Maymar - now with 37% less anonymity — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 12:15:10 EDT

Team Lux should've tried to pick up a cheap used Phaeton. I'm sure the Passat has more room for boxes of unidentifiable computer bits, but the self-driving bit would've suited the Phaeton so well.

Maymar - now with 37% less anonymity

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

rgseidl — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 11:32:30 EDT

If Team Lux can do rouhgly as well as Team MIT with less than 1/10th of the complexity, then their approach is definitely preferable. It's not about geekoid bling, it's about reliability.

rgseidl

DARPA Grand Challenge: A Battle of Wits

Bakafish — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 09:26:13 EDT

I love these sweet competitions. The x-prize and DARPA challenge are pushing technology forward in an extremely interesting, competitive and cost efficient way. If only American Idol could produce such good results...

Bakafish