A robot from Carnegie Mellon University.

 

Earlier this month, an unusual race was held in the Mojave Desert of southern California. Thirteen scientific teams competed to see whose unmanned land vehicle could travel more than 225 kilometers. The winner would receive one million dollars.

The United States government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency organized the race known as the Grand Challenge competition. It offered the prize to the team that could successfully move an unmanned vehicle across the desert in less than ten hours. The purpose of the race is to increase research into driverless technology. The Department of Defense says the use of driverless vehicles will change how wars are fought and reduce the number of people killed.

The race is considered the first of its kind because the vehicles were required to find their own way to the finish line. Team members were not permitted to intervene after the vehicles began to move. The vehicles had radar and laser sensors, Global Positioning System receivers and computers.

Thirteen vehicles started the race, but none finished. Many crashed or stopped just after the start. For example, the vehicle from Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg had its brakes fail in the starting area. The vehicle from the only high school team in the competition stopped after hitting a wall. The vehicle that traveled the farthest was built by a team from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It traveled more than eleven kilometers before it got caught at the edge of the road and its tires started to burn.

Government officials praised the vehicles even though none finished the race. They promised to hold the same competition again and again until a team wins the one million dollar prize. The next race will probably be held next year. Until then, the government plans to talk with some of the competing teams to find out how they built their vehicles. And they may pay some of the teams for sharing the technology they have already developed.

(March 2004)

III) Questions:
Double-clic on the words you don't understand to get a definition or a translation.

1) What is the text about?
A) a car race
B) a war
C) a robot race

2) Where did this event take place?
A) In California
B) In England
C) In South Africa

3) How many people took part into this event?
A) 6 people
B) 8 teens
C) 13 teams

4) What was the name of this event?
A) The Big Race
B) The Grand Challenge
C) Robot Race

5) Who organized this event?
A) The FBI
B) The MI6
C) The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

6) What were the rules?
A) You could help you robot to find his way
B) The robot had to find his way without your help
C) You could help the robot twice

7) Who won the race?
A) The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
B) The Global Positioning System
C) Nobody

8) What was the best team?
A) Carnegie Mellon University
B) Virginia Tech University
C) New York High School

9) What was the prize?
A) 1,000,000,000 dollars
B) 1,000,000 dollars
C) 1,000 dollars

10) Why was this race organized?
A) Because these robots will maybe replace soldiers in the future
B) Because the US government wanted to organize a new game
C) Because the government wanted to improve the toys used by American children

IV) ANSWERS
1C - 2A - 3C - 4B - 5C - 6B - 7C - 8A - 9B - 10A

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Audio MP3 file and text by Doug Johnson, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver (VOA/American English).