Servo - August 2008

Look Ma, No Driver! A Look at the Long Beach Grand Prix by Jason Bardis

April 20, 2008 may be known as the turning point when robots became better drivers than humans ... or at least Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Labs engineer Adam Solomon, when he took the wheel of an unnamed robotic Toyota Prius after its autonomous run and attempted to guide it back into the pits at the 34th Annual Long Beach Grand Prix.

Maybe the professional drivers at the race would have fared better than Adam. Then again, I’d bet dollars to diodes that none of the professional drivers had built any robot cars either, so let’s call it even.

Robots? Engineers? Car race? What? According to the event’s Fan Guide brochure, “... we’re also going ‘Green, Green, Green!’ in 2008! The Toyota Grand Prix will take a giant leap into the future with an expanded Lifestyle and Alternative Energy Expo in the Convention Center and a dynamic new ‘Green Power Prix-View,’ showcasing hybrid, electric, and possibly even robotic cars on and off the track, as well as energy-saving devices for the home and lifestyle.”

“Green” is certainly a key buzz-word these days, around the world, in all industries, and now “robotic” is

right up there alongside green too. Well, it’s almost right up there alongside green — it still has the cautious qualifier “possibly even” preceding it.

But what was this event really all about? Three robotic cars took to the track that day, all veterans of the DARPA Urban Challenge (not just any old competitors — race fans were treated to the 1st, 2nd, and 4th place finishers out of the 89 teams that entered and 11 teams that actually qualified). They showed off by doing a hot lap of the Long Beach Grand Prix race track. Well, maybe it was more of a warm lap ... okay, how about tepid?

Compared to the deafening blurs of Champ Cars averaging 93 mph, the 30 mph max speed robotic cars seemed rather tame and pokey at best, at least to the average race fan. At worst, the average race fan just didn’t get it: “Those cars must be driven by the people following in the chase cars.” “No, the chase cars are there just to shut them off in an emergency — those cars are really driving all by themselves.” “Yeah, I know, but, still, there’s gotta be somebody driving it!” “Uhhh ... ?”

This year’s Long Beach Grand Prix included this resoundingly successful

“Robot drivers are better than human drivers.” “Which human?” “Uh, that would be me.” “What happened?” “We finished an autonomous run and we switched out of autonomous into manual drive, and ... uh ... kinda kept going.