Team Gator Nation drives into semi-finals

October 23, 2007

Team Gator Nation recently won a spot in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge semi-finals after University of Florida engineers turned a 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid into a fully autonomous driving machine for this year’s competition.

On Oct. 26-31, Team Gator Nation will compete in the Urban Challenge National Qualification Event. If the team qualifies as a finalist, they later will compete in the Urban Challenge final event on Nov. 3. The cash prizes are $2 million for first place, $1 million for second place, and $500,000 for third place.

DARPA, the research and development organization for the Department of Defense, has sponsored the challenges since the first race in 2004 to encourage the development of autonomous robotic vehicle technology to help save lives on the battlefield.

Competing vehicles will conduct simulated military supply missions. As part of the challenge, vehicles must merge into moving traffic, navigate traffic circles, and avoid moving obstacles “as well as someone with a California driver’s license,” said Tony Tether, director of DARPA.