DARPA Grand Challenge (2004)

Announced in 2002, the first DARPA Grand Challenge was a driverless car competition held on March 13, 2004 in the Mojave Desert region of the United States.

[2] Prior to the main event in the Mojave Desert, the twenty-one qualifying teams were required to navigate a mile-long obstacle course at California Speedway.

The vehicles suffered from a variety of mechanical problems, including "stuck brakes, broken axles, rollovers, and malfunctioning satellite navigation equipment.

[1] In addition to the difficulty many vehicles had with the harsh terrain, many initial designs also struggled to handle both sensing upcoming obstacles and following the GPS waypoints simultaneously.

[2] Alumni of the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge include Kyle Vogt, co-founder of self-driving car company Cruise.

Red Team Racing's 1986 HMMWV Sandstorm
Team Caltech's autonomous vehicle at the March 8–12 qualification, inspection, and demonstration (QID) event at the California Speedway . Team Caltech qualified and was selected to start third in the challenge. [ 3 ]
Team ENSCO's vehicle, DAVID