After five vehicles completed the 2005 Grand Challenge, led by a team from Stanford University, DARPA determined that the problem of off-road autonomous navigation had been solved for military purposes. However, the problem of on-road autonomous navigation within an urban setting remained unsolved. In May of 2006, DARPA announced the creation of The Urban Challenge. The challenge stressed the difficulties of making an autonomous vehicle drive within a complex urban network, including loss of GPS coverage, intersections, lane changing, merging, and parking – all while obeying proper traffic laws.

PAVE participated in the Urban Challenge with Prospect Twelve, a 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid modified for drive-by-wire operation and fitted with several stereo and monocular cameras. The following pages explain our approach to the Urban Challenge and the achievements of the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge Team.