Telogis Lends Technology to Rochester Institute of Technology's DARPA Grand Challenge Team

COSTA MESA, Calif.--March 9, 2005--Telogis has agreed to sponsor Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT) G-CART Team in the DARPA Grand Challenge. Telogis will be supplying telematics technologies including hardware, development tools, tracking services and mapping software to RIT's effort to create an autonomous vehicle.

Created in response to a Congressional and DoD mandate, DARPA Grand Challenge is a field test intended to accelerate research and development in autonomous ground vehicles that will help save American lives on the battlefield. The Grand Challenge brings together individuals and organizations from industry, the R&D community, government, the armed services, academia, students, backyard inventors, and automotive enthusiasts in the pursuit of a technological challenge.

Mark Baybutt, G-CART team leader, said, "Telogis' development tools provide a hardware platform and robust development environment for the core intelligence of the vehicle." Continued Baybutt, "Additionally, Telogis' mapping and tracking applications provide us a feedback loop for the development process."

"Support from private corporations such as Telogis is critical to our success," said Dr. Albert Simone, president of RIT. "G-CART is unique in that it is comprised entirely of undergraduate students, where most of their counterparts are led by university faculty or engineering professionals."

Telogis' president of OEM & Enterprise Solutions Group, Newth Morris, points to a focus on R&D. "Telogis regularly delivers advanced technology through our turnkey and OEM sales channels. Like our continued product refinement and regular contributions to the open-source community, this sponsorship will help advance the state of the telematics industry. We are proud to sponsor the G-CART team."

The 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge will be held on Oct. 8, 2005, in the desert Southwest. The team that develops an autonomous ground vehicle that finishes the designated route most quickly within 10 hours will receive $2 million. The route will be no more than 175 miles over desert terrain featuring natural and man-made obstacles. The exact route will not be revealed until two hours before the event begins.

About Telogis:

Telogis is a leading provider of Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), GIS and telematics services. Telogis sells directly to end users and offers OEM hardware, software and GIS tools to location-based service and software development companies throughout the world.

Telogis has offices in Costa Mesa and Christchurch, New Zealand. For more information, visit www.telogis.com.

About DARPA

DARPA is the central research and development organization for the U.S. Department of Defense. The agency manages and directs basic and applied research and development projects for the Department of Defense, and pursues research and technology where the risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions.

About G-CART @ RIT

G-CART @ RIT is one of 195 teams vying for acceptance into the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. Unlike most entries, G-CART is entirely led and operated by undergraduate students. For more information regarding G-CART @ RIT and potential sponsorship please visit http://gcart.rit.edu or contact the executive board at exec@gcart.rit.edu.