page_title: DARPA Grand Challenge
section_title: 2005 Grand Challenge
hierarchical_section_title: DARPA Grand Challenge / 2005 Grand Challenge
caption_attribution_description: A vehicle being developed for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. I took this picture and release it to the public domain
context_page_description: The DARPA Grand Challenge is a prize competition for American autonomous vehicles, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the most prominent research organization of the United States Department of Defense. Congress has authorized DARPA to award cash prizes to further DARPA's mission to sponsor revolutionary, high-payoff research that bridges the gap between fundamental discoveries and military use. The initial DARPA Grand Challenge was created to spur the development of technologies needed to create the first fully autonomous ground vehicles capable of completing a substantial off-road course within a limited time. The third event, the DARPA Urban Challenge extended the initial Challenge to autonomous operation in a mock urban environment. The most recent Challenge, the 2012 DARPA Robotics Challenge, focused on autonomous emergency-maintenance robots.
  The first competition of the DARPA Grand Challenge was held on March 13, 2004 in the Mojave Desert region of the United States, along a 150-mile route that follows along the path of Interstate 15 from just before Barstow, California to just past the California–Nevada border in Primm.
context_section_description: The second competition of the DARPA Grand Challenge began at 6:40am on October 8, 2005. All but one of the 23 finalists in the 2005 race surpassed the 11.78 km (7.32 mi) distance completed by the best vehicle in the 2004 race.  Five vehicles successfully completed the 212 km (132 mi) course:
  Vehicles in the 2005 race passed through three narrow tunnels and negotiated more than 100 sharp left and right turns.  The race concluded through Beer Bottle Pass, a winding mountain pass with a sheer drop-off on one side and a rock face on the other.  Although the 2004 course required more elevation gain and some very sharp switchbacks (Daggett Ridge) were required near the beginning of the route, the course had far fewer curves and generally wider roads than the 2005 course.
  The natural rivalry between the teams from Stanford and Carnegie Mellon (Sebastian Thrun, head of the Stanford team was previously a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon and colleague of Red Whittaker, head of the CMU team) was played out during the race.  Mechanical problems plagued H1ghlander before it was passed by Stanley.  Gray Team's entry was a miracle in itself, as the team from the suburbs of New Orleans was caught in Hurricane Katrina a few short weeks before the race.  The fifth finisher, Terramax, a 30,000 pound entry from Oshkosh Truck, finished on the second day.  The huge truck spent the night idling on the course, but was particularly nimble in carefully picking its way down the narrow roads of Beer Bottle Pass.
caption: A vehicle that was developed for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge
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