Two bots collided about an hour ago here at the DARPA Urban Challenge robot car race in Victorville, CA.
Team Cornell's Skynet turned into a traffic circle a bit too sharply, and stopped before scraping the concrete K-rail bordering the course. After thinking for a moment, it backed up. Went forward again. Stopped.
That's when MIT's vehicle came nosing along on the same road feeding into the traffic circle. After considering the motionless Cornell vehicle for a second or two, MIT apparently decided it was safe to pass--just as Cornell nudged forward.
The result, one spectator said, was "kind of a slow motion train wreck." With both vehicles moving at about five miles an hour, they collided before race officials put both vehicles into pause mode.
Members of both teams came out to separate their vehicles and check for damage, which turned out to be nothing serious. The humans cleared the area, the control vehicles backed out of the way, and officials restarted first Cornell, which drove off, and then MIT, which also rejoined the race.
All six of the vehicles still in the race have now completed two of the three primary missions required to win the race.
Team Victor Tango is completing the last of its missions and is now heading for the finish line. Looks like we might just have a winner, folks.
