It's just been announced that the Tartan Racing / CMU team has taken first place in the DARPA Urban Challenge with its 'Boss' autonomous vehicle. Stanford's 'Junior' placed second, in a reversal of the results from the 2005 desert Grand Challenge. Virginia Tech's Odin came third.
From the press conference: MIT came in fourth. The event was in fact decided on adjusted time, as none of the leading teams committed any major violations. It turns out that DARPA had a recon aircraft orbiting the site for the whole day, so the officials were able to replay incidents reported from the field to determine if they were in fact unsafe.
The length of the course averaged 55 miles, but varied by team since the routes weren't explicitly provided, only the target waypoints. Team Tartan's average winning speed was about 14 miles per hour, with Stanford about one mph slower.
I've now got a 400 mile drive on which to reflect on the meaning of the whole thing.
Update: Those reflections can be found here.
