The Toyota Grand Prix, slated for April 18 - 20, will feature more than F1 ChampCar IRL The Tony George Racing League cars hauling ass around the track. As part of the Long Beach festivities, a Robotic Grand Prix will pit three of the biggest, most badass unmanned vehicles against each other. Junior, Boss and Ben are the three robo-racers that will tackle the 1.97-mile 11-turn circuit course. The three completely autonomous vehicles will have to complete one lap of the course and the fastest time will be awarded first place.
Boss is a 2007 Chevy Tahoe that was the work of student and faculty at Carnegie Mellon University. This is the same Boss that won the DARPA Grand Challenge. Junior is a 2006 VW Passat that was the runner up at the DARPA Grand Challenge and Ben is a Toyota Prius that took sixth at the Grand Challenge.
Don't get too pumped, the three vehicles have an average speed in the teens when completing a course. It may sound like a yawner, but autonomous vehicles are the future. Haven't you seen i Robot? [GPLB via BotJunkie]