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Oh well. As I said before I liked Team Oshkosh the best. I have one other reason for likeing them I didn't mention before. They're big. Every other team was running around in small SUV's and small cars. This is the same vehicle they ran thru the desert challenge. (I know Stanford used the same vehicle).

It wasn't purpose built for the race at hand, which means it's more flexible in the long run.

I was at least hoping for a finish, since they didn't win the desert challenge either, but did finish.

Darpa ran it's Urban Challenge over the weekend.  Since I was in London, I was unable to follow it. 

I'm happy to say that Team Oshkosh (formally Team Terramax) was competing in the finals.  I've always thought that this team had a much more directly usable vehicle than other teams.

Most of the immediate applications for autonomous vehicle are military, and starting with a military truck is a great idea.

But probably the second immediate application would be construction.  Construction sites are pretty dangerous.  It will be a long time till machines catch up to humans in this area, since not only is construction dangerous, but it's very delicate.

This doesn't mean it won't be useful in the short term in sites like blasting operations, and operations above the Arctic Circle.  (Ice road truckers anyone?)