VICTORVILLE, Calif.- A self-driving SUV called Boss made history by driving swiftly and safely while sharing the road with human drivers andother robots. The feat earned Carnegie Mellon University's Tartan Racingfirst place in the DARPA Urban Challenge.

Officials of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) todaydeclared Boss the winner of Saturday's event, which pitted 11 autonomousvehicles against each other on a course of suburban/urban roadways. Thefirst place prize includes a $2 million cash award.

After reviewing judges' scorecards overnight, DARPA officials concludedthat Boss, a robotized 2007 Chevy Tahoe, followed California driving lawsas it navigated the course and that it operated in a safe and stablemanner. Surprisingly, many of the robots made good decisions, said DARPADirector Tony Tether.

That meant speed became the determining factor, Tether said, and Boss wasthe fastest of the competitors by a large margin. Boss averaged about 14miles an hour over approximately 55 miles, finishing the course about 20minutes ahead of the second-place finisher, Stanford.

"Robots sometimes stun the world, inspire a lot of people and change thebelief of what is possible," said William "Red" Whittaker, a CarnegieMellon robotics professor and team leader of Tartan Racing. "We've seenthat here and once the perception of what's possible changes it nevergoes back. This is a phenomenal thing for robotics."Showing the world that autonomous driving technologies are robust and willultimately make driving safer and more enjoyable has been a major goal ofthe 45-member Tartan Racing team.

"This is really a fantastic accomplishment," Tether said. "I watched thesethings driving and I forgot after awhile that there was nobody in there."Autonomous driving technology will save lives on the battlefield, he said,by removing soldiers from supply convoys and other vehicles in harm's way,he added.

DARPA had declared Boss the top-rated robot in the event based on itsperformance on a series of qualifying runs at the former George Air ForceBase in the week prior to the final event. Boss was slated to start firston Saturday morning, but radio frequency interference caused in part by aJumbotron television monitor next to the start chute jammed GPS signals toBoss. The TV monitor was subsequently shut down, the GPS signals returnedand Boss was ready to go.

The delay cost Boss the pole position it earned in qualifying runs and resulted in Boss being the 10th robot to start. But the robot performedimpeccably despite occasionally being caught behind slower moving vehiclesin the early going. With each of its three required missions, Bosssteadily gained time on its rivals. Stanford's robot, which started secondand about 20 minutes ahead of Boss, was the first to cross the finishline, but Boss beat Stanford's time by 20 minutes.

"Everything that I saw Boss do looked great," said Chris Urmson, theteam's director of technology. "It was smooth. It was fast. It interactedwith other traffic well. It did what it was supposed to do."

As the second place finisher, Stanford received $1 million. VirginiaTech's Victor Tango team finished third and received $500,000. The robotsentered by teams from the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell and MIT alsofinished the race, though Cornell and MIT both exceeded the six-hour timelimit set by DARPA.

Tartan Racing includes Carnegie Mellon faculty, staff and students fromthe School of Computer Science's Robotics Institute, as well as CarnegieMellon's College of Engineering. It received major support from GeneralMotors, Caterpillar and Continental AG. Strengthening the team wereengineers from GM, Caterpillar, Continental and Intel who were embeddedwith the team in Pittsburgh.

Boss was rigorously tested during its development, with two identicalversions of the machine logging more than 2,000 autonomous miles, many ona brownfield site in Pittsburgh known as Robot City.

One of the team's advantages was a software system it developed calledTROCS, which produced graphic animations of Boss's sensor and data inputsduring each run. Much as game day video allows the Pittsburgh Steelers toreview and analyze their play, TROCS enabled Tartan Racing to understandwhat Boss saw as it drove and how and why it responded to its environment.Troublesome behaviors could be quickly identified and fixed, whileappropriate behaviors, which might occasionally look odd to an observer,were left untouched.

Tartan Racing benefited from team members, including Whittaker and Urmson,with experience in two previous DARPA Grand Challenge robot races. It alsobuilt on the wealth of expertise of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute,one of the largest robotic research and education organizations in theworld.

In addition to GM, Caterpillar and Continental AG, Tartan Racing'ssponsors include Intel, Google, Applanix, TeleAtlas, NetApp, VectorCANTech, Ibeo, Mobileye, HP, CarSim, CleanPower Resources, M/A-Com and McCabe Software.

For more information, see www.tartanracing.org.