Remember DARPA’s Grand Challenge, where robot cars raced autonomously across the desert, navigating obstacles and basically proving mankind’s awesomeness? I do. What surprised me about that was the fact that it only took two years to get cars that successfully completed the 212Km course, especially considering that the first year almost no vehicles even got out of the gate really, and the best vehicle only made it 7 miles. Well now that driving in the desert is ‘too easy’, DARPA has a new challenge, the Urban Grand Challenge:

The robot racers will face a “simulated” urban course 96 kilometers (60 miles) in length in November 2007. The course will feature urban obstacles, such as trees and buildings, traffic signs and other moving vehicles. Its location is yet to be disclosed.

The contestants must obey traffic regulations. As well as merging with other traffic, changing lanes and observing stop signs, the robo-participants will have to pull into a parking lot for a short period. The first three vehicles to complete the course in less than 6 hours will be awarded prizes.

The race is slated for November 2007, so get your PhD and AI skills up to snuff and get busy. The one thing that I think is pretty great about it all is that DARPA is giving each team $1million to develop their vehicles, and it seems that auto manufacturers are teaming up with some teams as well, so this contest might produce some good results.