Luxury maker Rolls-Royce...
Luxury maker Rolls-Royce has confirmed the production car based on the 100EX convertible - driven by Auto Express in issue 813 - will cost around í‚á£214,000 when it goes on sale in 2007. The British firm is expected to build only a handful of examples each year. The four-seat machine will replace the Corniche.
Stanford University...
Stanford University unveiled its entrant for the 2007 Urban Challenge, sponsored by the Defense Advanced research Projects Agency (DARPA) on Friday in the form of Junior.
Researchers from the university hope that Junior will equal the success of its predecessor, the 2005 Challenge winner Stanley. But this year the race is even more challenging.
Rather than a test of navigating tough terrain, the 2007 Urban Challenge introduces the robot cars within a city environment where they must engage in military supply missions and adapt to city life, including traffic, driving regulations and road intersections.
The prize? A cool m for the fastest qualifying vehicle; half that for second and half again for third.
Stanford University"s Junior is based on 2006 model VW Passat with an arsenal of tech gadgetry on board. Junior can judge distances via a spinning range-finding laser array that gives it a 360 degree awareness of its position in relation to other objects in near real time.
This is backed up with six video cameras for visual analysis and well as further lasers on the bumpers, radar, GPS and hardware to handle changes in inertia.
Alongside Junior, robot cars from Princeton, Berkeley and a host of other teams will take to starting grid on 3 November.