They're dropping fast. DARPA officials have added eight more teams to yesterday's list of six teams disqualified from the upcoming Urban Challenge autonomous car race:
Officials also notified at least six other teams that they can breathe easy now, at least until Saturday's race--they've made the cut:
That leaves 21 teams out of an original 35 left in the qualifiers, one more than the planned 20 finalists. The surviving teams who haven't yet made the "qualified" list are out on the courses now for the final shakeout.
Watching DARPA director Tony Tether whip through testing on the turn-and-merge course yesterday, it seemed fairly clear who was in and who was out.
Caltech's Alice, for example, got thrown off the track after just a couple of laps. First she cut off a human-driven DARPA car (left), eliciting groans from spectators. On the next lap, she jumped the curb, recovered badly, and ended up in the wrong lane, forcing a DARPA driver to swerve out of the way. Officials had seen enough and ended the test.
Gator Nation's "NaviGATOR" seemed downright hostile, cutting off a DARPA car on a left turn, and then gunning across the next intersection, very nearly nailing a DARPA car in the trunk. Officials blew the horn and dejected team members got the "better luck next time" handshake from Tether right then and there.
