think or thwim

Carnegie Mellon’s Chevy Tahoe won the Urban Challenge Saturday. This year’s event had great coverage, but it was pretty boring to watch because the robots were so good. Here’s some pre-race footage of the winner. You have to look closely to see that there’s no human driver, but there’s no human driver:

Keep in mind that this wasn’t just a race. There was a time component, but the bots were being judged on driving skill and adherence to the rules of the road as well. This was supposed to be a test of robots driving safely in the suburbs. Here’s some footage of the finals on Saturday.

I think we’re almost ready for a robot Formula One race. There’s no need for a driver compartment, and I bet that without weight of a driver, roll cage, and safety gear, the ideal size of the cars would be more like gocarts. The cars could accelerate faster and have higher top speed. If they were fuel cell or battery powered almost all of the weight could be below the axles, which would make for some wicked handling.

After watching the incredible progress in these bots over the last four years, I don’t think human driven race cars will be competitive for long.