The three other cars that were out on the DARPA Urban Challenge course when the three front runners came in have now crossed the finish line. That makes 6 cars that completed the 60-mile course, out of 11 starters.
The Ben Franklin Racing Team's Toyota Prius came in at 2:50, about an hour after the three leaders, followed by MIT at 3:35, and then Cornell a minute or so later.
It's just possible, given the different start times for the cars and the various off-the-clock pauses, each lasting a few minutes, that Ben Franklin might still be in the running for a prize. But it seems unlikely that either MIT or Cornell could take one home.
Of the top three finishers, Carnegie Mellon looks like a good candidate first-place, since the team's Chevy Tahoe appeared to have completed the race with no traffic infractions or other mishaps within the 6-hour time limit for the race.
Stanford and Victor Tango also finished within the 6-hour limit, but each made mistakes. Victor Tango's For Escape hybrid, Odin, hopped a curb and drove with two wheels off the road at one point (it quickly recovered), and Stanford's Junior made a questionable passing maneuver to avoid a traffic jam in its lane. Those two teams could be in a tie for second and third place. Since Junior came in before the other two front-runners, he's my pick for second place.
We'll get the official results when DARPA director Tony Tether hands out the first, second, and third-place trophies to the winners tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Actually, Tether likely won't do the lifting himself--the first place trophy, a statue of an eagle, reportedly weighs 100 pounds.
