Stanley, the Stanford Racing Team's entry in the DARPA Grand Challenge, tears through the Arizona desert in a training run before next week's National Qualifying Event. Stanley is the product of collaboration between Stanford's School of Engineering, VW's Electronics Research Lab, MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures and other supporters including Android and Red Bull. Stanley has driven thousands of miles autonomously, powered by a VW Touareg R5 TDI and software developed by Stanford. |
Stanley Trains for the DARPA Grand Challenge
In the year since the project began, Stanley has driven thousands of miles autonomously, powered by the rugged body of VW Touareg R5 TDI and the whip- smart brains of software developed by Stanford engineers. As the car drives, the software continuously analyzes data coming in from sensors including lasers, radar, video and GPS devices. As it deftly handles the desert terrain, it is running on renewable biodiesel SunFuel.
DARPA is offering a $2 million prize to the team that can complete a challenging desert terrain course of up to 175 miles in less than 10 hours. For more photos and information on Stanley and the Stanford Racing Team, please visit: http://www.stanfordracing.org. More information on the DARPA Grand Challenge can be found at: http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/