Triangle based, Insight Racing Team is one of the select few invited to participate in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge Race for the second time.  The race posting a $2 Million prize will pit driverless autonomous vehicles in a 142 mile race across rugged desert terrain in the southwestern United States and will be conducted in October of this year.   Through a series of elimination rounds, DARPA has whittled the field of nearly 200 teams to the 40 best who will compete in October.  Insight Racing is the only team from the Carolina’s eligible to compete.

Driven by a Congressional mandate to convert one-third of the military vehicles to driverless computer-driven mode by 2015, the Department of Defense who authorizes the event, believes the future holds great promise for autonomous vehicles to perform missions that put our men and women in uniform at risk.  The inaugural DARPA Grand Challenge in 2004 featured 15 teams that navigated a 142-mile course through the Mojave Desert.  Although none of the vehicles completed the course, the excitement and momentum generated by this first field test encouraged DARPA to plan a second event, scheduled for October 8, 2005.  In addition, the prize has been doubled from $1 million to $2 million for the vehicle that completes the course the fastest within a 10 hour time period.  The field was narrowed down to 40 participants from almost 200 entrants on the basis of site visits that demonstrated the viability and capability of each entrant.

Grayson Randall, Insight Racing founder stated “The development of robotics technology will allow us to accomplish missions that now threaten our fighting forces.  We are thrilled to have a chance to contribute to this effort – and to develop innovations of our own that help advance state-of-the art solutions.”

Randall went on to say “We have an exceptional team that is comprised of students from North Carolina State University, members of the Triangle technical community and retired business executives who bring a vast array of experience, expertise and enthusiasm to the team.” 

According to Walt Sliva, Business Manager for Insight, “As a result of Insight’s participation in this event, Insight has been the sponsor of Senior Design projects in NCSU’s Computer Science Department involving over 30 students over the course of three semesters.  Since 2003, Insight Racing has been hard at work designing a cost effective and robust vehicle that can travel with no human assistance over the course’s rugged terrain.”

Earlier this year, Insight Racing’s vehicle was the first entered in this event to successfully complete a rugged 2.7 mile course at Virginia international Raceway in a fully autonomous mode.

About Insight Racing:  The Insight Racing Team is part of Insight Technologies, Inc., a company formed in 2003 to develop autonomous robotics solutions.  Based in Cary, NC Insight Technologies brings together the best hardware and software into a cost effective integrated package for assistive and autonomous vehicle operation.

About the DARPA Grand Challenge:  The DARPA Grand Challenge race has captured international attention because its full size driverless vehicle race stretches the limits of current technology know-how.  Detailed information can be found at www.grandchallenge.org.

For more information, contact:

Walt Sliva

Insight Technologies, Inc.

P. O. Box 157

Morrisville, NC 27560

(919) 468-8558

www.insightracing.org