A REAL-LIFE Wacky Race is set to take place from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. But this isn鈥檛 one for Penelope Pitstop, as only driverless cars can enter.
It鈥檚 all part of a project called the Grand Challenge, brainchild of the US government鈥檚 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The programme aims to encourage the development of 鈥渁utonomous ground vehicles鈥�.
The challenge is simple: contestants must design and build a vehicle that can navigate the 400 kilometres from start to finish, on and off-road, avoiding other vehicles and obstacles along the way. The first to arrive will scoop an as yet undisclosed cash prize.
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Hopeful contestant Paul Grayson, a robotics enthusiast from Traverse City, Michigan, compares the race to the land rush in the old West. 鈥淚 expect the starting line to consist of every form of transportation you can think of,鈥� he says. The only difference this time round is that the vehicles will come packed with sensors and navigation equipment. The route for the race, which will take place in 2004, has yet to be confirmed.
Despite the distance the machines will have to cover, actually navigating from beginning to end shouldn鈥檛 be too arduous, says Grayson, who has started putting a team together to build a vehicle. More difficult will be the task of persuading the vehicles that it鈥檚 better to go round an obstacle than trying to drive straight over it.
As Grayson puts it: 鈥淭he biggest problem I see is the question of how to put 鈥榟orse sense鈥� into the vehicle.鈥�