The official rules for DARPA's robot car race require competing teams to be based in the U.S. and to be led by a U.S. citizen.
Nevertheless, German automobile engineers and computer scientists will have a strong presence at tomorrow's race, including as part of two teams --Team AnnieWAY and CarOLO--fielded by German research institutions and universities.
"We needed a native American," Team AnnieWAY co-founder Sören Kammel, explains as the reason he and fellow German researcher Ben Pitzer asked Annie Lien--a Chinese American working with them at the Bosch Research and Technology Center in Palo Alto, California--to take the job of team leader.
"At first I thought, 'Really?'" recalls Lien. "Because my specialty is not robotics, it's the opposite. It's the human factors of human-computer interaction." Still, she was intrigued enough to ask "How much of my free time do I have to dedicate?"
"Maybe one or two days of paperwork," Kammel assured her, "nothing more."
By the time Lien realized just how much paperwork being the team's interface with DARPA would require, it was too late--she was hooked. The Germans even named the team after her, liking the play on words suggesting that they'd get their car running any way they could.
Although the team operates under the auspices of several German research institutions and universities participating in the Collaborative Research Center on Cognitive Automobiles, it receives little financial support. "We're the poorest team," says Lien.
Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing team and the Stanford Racing Team also have strong German influences, with engineers on loan from Germany-based Continental Automotive Systems and Volkswagen respectively.
Why so many Germans in the race? "German engineering," explains Kammel with a smile. "Germany is very proud of its automotive industry."
