Continental Automotive Systems to Support Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing in 2007 Pentagon Sponsored Urban Challenge

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., May 16, 2007 -- Continental Automotive Systems is the latest sponsor to join Carnegie Mellon University's Tartan Racing, a team that will enter a driverless Chevy Tahoe in the $2 million DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Urban Challenge scheduled for November 3, 2007.

Continental is providing driver assistance technologies, including advanced sensors, plus its General brand Grabber UHP tires with Conti*Seal, and has embedded an engineer who is working full-time with the Pittsburgh- based team to help the vehicle to compete in the race. The race consists of traveling 60 miles in a mock urban setting without a driver or the use of remote controls in less than six hours. Vehicles must follow the rules of the road, negotiate intersections, merge into traffic, and avoid obstacles, with only computers at the wheel.

"We are thrilled to be part of the Tartan Racing team," said Dean McConnell, director, Occupant Safety and Driver Assistance Systems, Continental Automotive Systems, North America. "This experience will help further advance our active safety and other intelligent technologies for use in passenger cars and trucks of the future."

The Urban Challenge is designed to develop autonomous vehicles that will someday perform hazardous tasks with limited human involvement. Ultimately, the experimental technology developed for the Challenge could yield new devices that aid human drivers and improve highway safety.

"Continental brings to the team depth of knowledge, passion and appreciation for true innovation in developing smarter, more efficient vehicles," said William "Red" Whittaker, Fredkin research professor at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute and team leader for Tartan Racing.

Since there are no human drivers in the Urban Challenge, the driverless cars must "see" roads and other vehicles with cameras, lasers, radar, sensors and other smart car technologies. Planning software continuously determines where and how to drive, how to avoid trouble and how to quickly reach a destination.

The Urban Challenge will be at an as-yet undisclosed site somewhere in the western United States. It will award a $2 million prize to the team whose vehicle completes the course the fastest in less than six hours, with $500,000 and $250,000 prizes going to the second- and third-place finishers.

Other sponsors of the Tartan Racing team include General Motors, Caterpillar, Google and Intel, among others.