Contact:
Byron Spice
412-268-9068

Anne Watzman
412-268-3830

For immediate release:
October 3, 2006

DARPA Selects Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing Team To Receive Urban Challenge Development Funding

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University's Tartan Racing team is one of 11 teams that will receive technology development funds from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to help prepare for the agency's Urban Challenge event for autonomous vehicles. The Urban Challenge, scheduled for Nov. 3, 2007, will require driverless vehicles to negotiate 60 miles of streets in a mock-urban setting somewhere in the western United States.

Each of the 11 "track A" teams will receive up to $1 million from DARPA, with monies paid out in increments as the teams achieve milestones over the next year. More than 60 teams submitted proposals to DARPA for track A funding.

"This is excellent news," said Chris Urmson, the team's technology leader. "It means they have faith in our ability to meet the challenge."

In addition to Tartan Racing, the track A teams include Autonomous Solutions of Young Ward, Utah; California Institute of Technology; Cornell University; The Golem Group of Santa Monica, Calif.; Honeywell Aerospace Advanced Technology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Oshkosh Truck Corp.; Raytheon; Stanford University; and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Tartan Racing, with General Motors as its premier sponsor, will prepare two driverless Chevy Tahoes, though only one can be entered in the competition. One Tahoe has arrived and is being equipped with computers, sensors and other gear for autonomous driving, while the other continues to undergo retrofitting by GM.

Other sponsors of Tartan Racing include Caterpillar, Applanix, Continental AG, Google and Intel. For more information about the team, visit www.tartanracing.org.

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