DARPA Robot Race Winners Awarded

Boston (dbTechno) - DARPA director Tony Tether unveiled the winners of the Urban Challenge 2007, the robot car race held by DARPA each year.

The winner of the DARPA robot race is Carnegie Mellon’s Tartan Racing Team. They won first prize in the robot race, taking home $2 million. Coming in second place was Stanford University’s Stanford Racing team. The second place team took in $1 million. Third place was won by Virginia Tech’s Victor Tango team, they took home $500,000.

Tether stated that Tartan came in as a clear winner. The closest was Stanford who finished about 20 minutes later, followed by Victor Tango 20 minutes after Stanford.

He stated that Tartan’s robot car averaged 14 miles per hour throughout the entire course, which spanned 55 miles. Stanford averages 13 miles per hour.

Tether called the race a “fantastic accomplishment. The robot car technology, he stated, was just about ready for other companies and organizations to pick up on and progress further.

He stated that “I think that we’re close to that point, that it’s time for this technology to be furthered by somebody else.”