You'd think that when a robotic car and a human-driven vehicle have a run in, the unmanned auto would be the one to go. But here at the DARPA Urban Challenge, a different calculus applies.
The other day, Axion Racing's "Spirit" autobot, turned into one of DARPA's chase cars on the left-turn-and-merge course here. Today, the human-driven, blue Ford Taurus -- car # 186 -- is gone. "We eighty-sixed 186," Axion team leader Bill Kehaly says.
And good riddance, too, he adds. "You can't see blue cars on brand new asphalt." Axion Racing's "Spirit" came through the collision with only a few scratches to its beefed-up front bumper.
A member of another team eavesdropping on our conversation clapped when she heard that one of the blue DARPA cars was out of the race; now, there were only three blue ones left. Seems the laser range finders that many of the robo-cars use for navigation have a hard time picking out blue colors from the background of black asphalt.
"Be careful when you take that turn in front of that thing!" An official warned a DARPA driver over the radio before he turned in front of Spirit on the four-way-stop-and-obstacle avoidance course today.
Kehaly exulted (above) when Spirit passed that part of the test.
The car didn't fair as well on the obstacle-avoidance part of the course, though. Two of the traffic barrels DARPA had placed in its path ended up under Spirit's front wheels.
