Join your friends in the School of Computer Science for a live Web cast of the DARPA Urban Challenge, a race for self-driving vehicles, from 8:30 a m to 6 pm, EDT Saturday, Nov. 3., in the Adamson Wing (136A) in Baker/Porter Halls on the university campus.

The Urban Challenge, which takes place at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville, Calif., will feature "Boss," a Chevy Tahoe entered by Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing Team and as many as 19 other vehicles. Their challenge is to navigate safely in an urban environment on a course that includes merging traffic, stop signs, intersections and other kinds of challenges that human drivers encounter all the time. The vehicle that successfully navigates 60 miles in less than six hours will win a grand prize of $2 million. Second and third place winners will receive $1 million and $500,000, respectively.

The Urban Challenge is the third in a series of competitions held by DARPA to catalyze advances in autonomous vehicles. On Oct. 8, 2005, Carnegie Mellon's "Sandstorm" and "H1ghlander" vehicles crossed the finish line of the DARPA Grand Challenge after successfully completing a 132-mile course through the Nevada desert, coming in second and third place respectively.

For more information on DARPA's Urban Challenge and Tartan Racing, see: www.tartanracing.org.
To watch the Urban Challenge on line, visit DARPA's live webcast at www.grandchallenge.org, starting at 6:00 am PT (Pacific Time) orwww.visualwebcaster.com/WILLIAMS/41666/event.html.