Synopsis

The piece opens showing a 2006 Volkswagen Passat nicknamed 'Junior' as it drives itself around a parking lot near the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View. Junior is stuffed full of advanced electronics and computers and it 'sees' its environment with rotating laser radar scanners (Lidar). It navigates entirely with its onboard computer running Stanford-developed artificial intelligence algorithms. At a brief press conference, Stanford project leader Sebastian Thrun says "we have to have cars that can understand the world," before he and his university team turn over the 'keys' to Junior to officials representing the government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA is evaluating Junior to see if it qualifies to be among the 30-or-so teams the agency will invite to participate in an autonomous vehicle road rally in November, 2007. At one point Junior hesitates before moving past a parked car on the track but it manages to negotiate its maneuvers without crashing. Afterward Sebastian Thrun declares the test drive a success. Then Thrun takes viewers on a quick tour of Junior's high-tech accessories.

Location

Interactive Map: Mountain View, CA, USA

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