Ford Motor Company recently agreed to donate a vehicle to Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering for use in the DARPA Urban Challenge. Today PAVE took delivery of the vehicle, a 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid. Our entrant in the 2005 Grand Challenge, Prospect Eleven, was a 2005 GMC Canyon pickup truck. Since the challenge we’ve used Prospect Eleven as a testbed for our Urban Challenge work.

In the coming weeks we’ll be modifying the Escape for autonomous control, after which we’ll move our sensors and servers into it. Our deepest thanks to Ford, especially Suzanne Farran, Chris Baker, Christian Wenk, Greg Stevens, and Brad Simmons, without whose hard work and perseverance this relationship wouldn’t have been possible.