How would you like the Prospect 12 to chauffeur you around? (image source: http://pave.princeton.edu)
Farewell, days when driving meant a texting hiatus and an inappropriate time to put both hands in the air when dancing to your favorite tunes. If you’ve ever wished your car could just, you know, drive itself, you may soon be in luck. The Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (PAVE) group is, by their estimation, less than a month away from creating the first car to get its own driver’s license.
PAVE was born in 2004 when several students in Alain Kornhauser’s transportation class watched the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge and became convinced, after watching each of the vehicles fail by the 7.5 mile mark on a 150-mile course, that they could construct a competitive autonomous vehicle.
The group entered their vehicle, Prospect 11, in the 2005 DARPA competition, placing 10th out of 23 vehicle finalists. But they didn’t stop there. After acquiring a vehicle donation from Ford, PAVE began work on the Prospect 12 for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, and then continued work on this vehicle, placing third out of 47 teams and winning the title of “rookie of the year” in the 2008 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition.
