Randy Poe wrote:

http://www.betterhumans.com/News/4711/Default.aspx

I stumbled on this while looking for something else at
DARPA. For the first time, a robot (five of them) has
completed the DARPA Challenge, an autonomous vehicle
cross-country race.

- Randy

COMMENT:

For those of you who don't know, DARPA is the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency, the central R&D organization of the DoD,

robot cars take off down the desert road at over 30 mph, with laser
scanners and computers in place of human drivers, Skynet just got a
little more real for ME.)

Randy Poe wrote:

http://www.betterhumans.com/News/4711/Default.aspx

I stumbled on this while looking for something else at
DARPA. For the first time, a robot (five of them) has
completed the DARPA Challenge, an autonomous vehicle
cross-country race.

- Randy

COMMENT:

For those of you who don't know, DARPA is the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency, the central R&D organization of the DoD,
which in this case was trying (by offering a $2 million prize) to
enlist university help to meet congressional mandate to have 30% of
military vehicles autonomous by 2015. DoD has been feeling the pressure
on its long and poorly-protected land-supply lines in Iraq, and is
still smarting from the political fallout of what we might call the
"Jessica Lynch Syndrome." This robot vehicle thing is the intended
"fix" for that, but as with all technology, it will eventually be
coming to a civilian use near you.

Technological progress *is* accelerating. This weekend I actually drove
to Primm, just across the Nevada/California state line (East of Whiskey
Pete's, behind the Buffalo Bill's casino), and watched the robot
automobiles navigate the Nevada desert without aid, following an
internal map given them 2 hours before, using only their own image
systems and GPS sensors. (human control was limited only to several
kinds of a stop switches). The robots went though tunnels under the
main I-15 highway (having to give up, and then re--acquire, GPS lock),
over hills, train tracks, through dust clouds on a dry lake bed, and
finally down a winding dirt road in a mountain canyon. They even passed
each other.

Last year, they all crashed ridiculously within a few miles. This year,
5 of them made it all the way through the 130-odd mile course, which
was in many places not marked, most of it out of site from the
start-line, and nearly all of it on dirt. Though they didn't announce
it officially, we in the crowd knew the Stanford car had probably won,
inasmuch as it was launched second (between the two top seed
Carnegie-Mellon 'bots), but despite several minutes head-start by the
leader, managed to pass the leader and still come in first. The first
three robots made it to the finish line after 7 hours of racing, all
within 20 minutes, or so. They probably would have been faster, if they
hadn't had an absolute speed limit for the course.

Carnegie-Mellon greatly outspent Stanford and expected to win if
anybody did. The Stanford team looked inordinately pleased with
itself, and seemed to have drawn on a larger portion of student body.
Half the bleachers were shouting "STAN-LEE!", "STAN-LEE!" and not
because they were fans of spiderman. "Stanley" was the converted Taureg
used by the Stanford team, and the VW people looked pleased with
themselves, too. Their Taureg logo "Drivers Wanted" had been changed to
"Drivers Not Required."

A friend of mine in the big DARPA tent next to the bleachers where we
saw the 'bots leave and return, saw an international news article
appear minutes after the finish, by googling the web with his cell
phone(!). Actually it was a TREO-- a complete palmtop computer and
camera as well (his photos go by Bluetooth over the cell link to
internet to his friends or home computer, where they get tagged and
added to his "Life BLOG"--- what, you don't do that, also?) About 12
million other people queried the DARPA website from around the world,
over the previous couple of hours. All this was pretty much science
fiction, even 5 years ago. As was my $30 microwave oven. Every time I
look around me these days, I see a new piece of technology sprout up
like a mushroom, or an old piece suddenly become ridiculously
inexpensive.

As Ray Kurzweil reminds us, in terms of knowledge and progress, we'll
repeat the entire gain of the 20th century in the first 14 years of the
21st. Then do it again in the next 7 years after that. Then again in
3.5 years. Then 1.75 years... Somewhere about that time (2030, give or
take), either magical things will happen, or else Skynet will wake up
and terminate us. In any case, be there or be square. (After seeing the
robot cars take off down the desert road at over 30 mph, with laser
scanners and computers in place of human drivers, Skynet just got a
little more real for ME.)