Posted on 07/21/2005 10:53:32 AM PDT by Panerai
Apple technology drives a new fully-autonomous vehicle developed for a major US competition.
Team Banzai is one of just 40 teams (selected from 118 entrants) from around North America to have made it through to the semi-finals of the 2005 DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Grand Challenge.
DARPA is the central research and development organization for the US Department of Defense (DoD).
Tiger is the tank
The team has developed it's Tiger-powered customized Touareg car (dubbed "Dora") using Mac OS X technologies for the entire development and race management for the attempt.
Power Mac G5's running OS X inside the car control electronic pistons and belts to control the steering wheel, brake and gas pedals, and gear shifter.
In order to navigate to a destination, Dora follows a series of GPS waypoints, while an array of sensors - radar, video cameras, sonars and lasers - check terrain and assess likely obstacles.
The 40 semi-finalists had to prove their self-controlled vehicles could navigate themselves through a narrow 200-metre course that included turns and randomly-place obstacles.
(Excerpt) Read more at macworld.co.uk ...
Cool. I hope the field is as interesting this year as it was last year. Last year someone actually entered a motorcycle.
Get ready for the Mac bashers. I'm a Mac person but have noticed this place is full of people who have a point to make about Macs.
I thought maybe it was fueled by burning stacks of cash belonging to tiger woods.
Dora - No doubt named for the self-piloting spaceship in Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love".
And for fans of Team Banzai - "No matter where you go... There you are."
Tiger car ping
that's because they make it sooooo easy.
My favorite thing right now is how mac users have been claiming that their hardware is so superior to pc hardware. I wonder what the upcoming switch to PC hardware will do to that part of the collective Mac ego?
Er, it'll still be Apple-designed hardware, just with Intel CPUs. If you're not a developer you won't notice any difference, other than the laptops being much faster.
I thought it was a typo meant to be Tora, Japanese for tiger, but you are likely right.
Since they'll be using Intel processors would it not be possible that a great deal of the hardware inside will also be of Intel design if not at least following their specs? It's not like you can take a Mac today and plug an Intel processor into it.
I'm just hoping that Apple will do the smart thing and release their OS into the wild so that it'll work on any hardware that meet their specs regardless of whether they sell it or not. That way Microsoft might get some real competition. But considering Apple's strange business decisions with their computers and software in the past I highly doubt they'll do it.
Haven't you heard? Some states are allowing people to shoot feral software.
what specific hardware? you mean the box it comes it will be pretty apple colors? The mice will still have a single button???
They're going to pc hardware to cut costs. How can they save money by designing 'their own hardware'? Likely everything will be off the shelf or the usual knock-off-for-manufacturers variety.
Does Bill Gates still own a large chunk of Apple stock?
That's already largely the case today. Aside from the CPU, Macs use standard PC components: ATA/SATA drives, PCI and AGP slots, DDR RAM, etc.
I'm just hoping that Apple will do the smart thing and release their OS into the wild so that it'll work on any hardware that meet their specs regardless of whether they sell it or not.
Not anytime soon. The problem is that OS X really costs a lot more than $130, it's just that much of the price is included in the cost of Mac hardware. Take away the hardware profits and there's no way Apple could survive selling OS X at a "reasonable" price point, even with much higher volume. And Microsoft wouldn't take kindly to such a direct attack; Mac Office would be instantly discontinued, for example.
Good catch! It's been so long since I've read that excellent book that I didn't make the connection.
Nothing. The Mac has used two basic processor families (680x0, PPC) since it's inception, neither of which were instruction-compatible. It also made a smaller leap from Moto PPC to PPC970, which are radically different chips, although instruction-compatible.
It's still Apple, and Apple hardware, just using the same microprocessor that the majority of PCs use. I don't remember people getting mad when Apple started using the same graphics boards that were available for the PC.
That's related to the real reasons for the switch. Most importantly, they will be ensured long-term availability of competitively performing chips with a long roadmap that will not be neglected or abandoned due to the supplier having more important business concerns elsewhere. This has long been a problem between Apple and its suppliers, Moto and IBM, and has probably caused Apple millions of sales. The cost comes in because due to the PPC970 not being worth the R&D to IBM, Apple probably would have had to pay more to ensure a supply of competitive chips.
Second, they now have a second source supplier in AMD if Intel should flake out.
I believe it was all sold years ago. Too bad for Bill, since it would be worth a whole lot more today. BTW, it was non-voting stock anyway.
I like Apple products but even going back to the original “little brown toaster” there was a Mac snobbery and elitism that Apple’s marketing actively developed…
(I hate going in to an Apple store there and there “Think Differently” Silicon Valley/Bay Area, white wine and Brie elitist yuppie persona)
It not that Apple doesn't’t make a good product but there not the be all/end all, god’s gift to the world that Apple’s marketing hype makes them out to be and that a lot of Mac User buy in to
Add in that Mac tended to be over priced and a “sealed box” concept … I’ve built most of my PC’s for maybe a forth of what a comparable Mac would be (I build systems and networks for business’s)
That said I love the new little mini Mac.. With the bundled software there a good buy
Of coarse "MicroSloth" and it tendency for grandiose “Bloatware” is another issue
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.