Pentagon Hosts Driverless Car Race

The field has improved significantly since last year's race, when none of the contestants crossed the finish line:

Stanley the Volkswagen, designed by Stanford University, zipped through the 132-mile Mojave Desert course in six hours and 53 minutes Saturday, using only its computer brain and sensors to navigate rough and twisting desert and mountain trails.

You know, I read articles about this from a couple of other sources, but only in SignOnSandiego did I find this sentence:

The $2 million reward was funded by taxpayers.

UPDATE: The more I think about that sneaky-bland little sentence the more pissed I get.
This technology is intended to reduce American military casualties ($2 million is an incredibly cheap pricetag in that arena).
And later, of course, there are all those nifty civilian uses that tend to flow out of military technological advancements.
But in the midst of this exciting story, she feels the need to stop and inform the public where the government gets its money. Because we didn't know?
It is a curiously pointless interjection.

-Unless she thinks Americans shouldn't be paying for it. Then the little stand-alone sentence makes total sense.
Hammerhead.

posted by Laura. at 09:34 PM

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