by Alex Schuler
“I’m going to go get the scoop,” Ted said. He bolted off toward team Berkeley.
Rusty slid his legs off the table and stood up, stretching and twisting his back as he did. He walked around to the front of the DSU table, massaging his injured hip along the way. He turned his back to the monitors so that he was facing his team. Nico and Harry were watching Lori scroll through the mapping data for the section of the course Easy Rider had been navigating before it came to a halt.
“It looks flat and rather barren,” Lori said. She looked up at Rusty. “Any guesses?”
“I’ve told you all day that Easy Rider was not our competition.” Rusty looked up to see Ted returning to the DSU table. “And here’s why.”
Ted’s grin was wide and infectious. He struggled to keep from laughing, so as not to look rude, having just left the other team’s table. Ted took a position at the end of the table with his back facing Berkeley.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Ted said.
“What failed?” Nico asked. “The GPS? One of their sensors?”
“Their gas tank.” Ted could not help it and began to chuckle. He covered his mouth to drown out his laughter. “They ran out of gas!”
“What?” Lori cried. She looked back at the Berkeley table. “Are you serious? How? Why?”
“They told me they never expected to get past the last challenge. They were truly shocked they made it to the road race. Berkeley never bothered to figure out how much gas they would need to complete the one hundred and thirty miles.” Ted looked up at Rusty. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“I had a hunch.” Rusty remained stone-faced as he spoke. “I talked with their team lead last week. The guy couldn’t stop gushing about the innovations they’d done with the bike. I’ll admit that getting a two-wheeler to ride upright is impressive. The gear that bike is carrying weighs a lot more than a human rider. I did my own back-of-napkin calculations and figured that with the three-gallon tank filled to capacity it would get ninety, maybe a hundred miles before it ran out of gas.”
“Look!” Harry was on his feet. “Cyclops!”
DARPA switched the primary POV screen from Easy Rider to Cyclops. The Humvee’s camera feed showed it approaching the Chevy Tahoe chase vehicle parked several yards from the motorcycle. Cyclops’s speed slowed to twenty miles per hour and then ten. The crowd beneath the big top became silent as they watched the Hummer gracefully maneuver between the Tahoe and the motorcycle parked on its twin kickstands. With the two vehicles safely behind it and a clear road ahead, Cyclops roared forward and quickly reached forty-five miles per hour. The DSU table erupted in glee, and even Rusty allowed himself a brief smile of approval.
“Don’t celebrate just yet.” Rusty turned and looked at the leaderboard. Easy Rider had dropped to third place, with Athena in second and Cyclops in first. “We still have Ashton on our tail.”
16
The clock above the DARPA operations center read 4:06 p.m. The only sound inside the big top was the hum of the industrial air conditioners. The end of the race was moments away and more than half the team members had left the big top and were crowded in the bleachers and behind the concrete barriers at the edge of the finish line, waiting anxiously to see who would win. The blazing dry heat and blustery wind did nothing to subdue the excitement buzzing throughout the crowd. Ted pushed his way through the crowd away from the monitors to get a front-row, in-person view of the finish line.
The course circled a set of mountains, with the last two miles a relatively flat and winding road that gently snaked its way to level ground. The competitors were on their final lap. A glint of light sparkled in the distance. Ted raised his binoculars to focus on the first vehicle to come around the corner. His heart sank at the sight of Athena. The Prius was cautiously descending the last hill, using its regenerative braking to slow its descent and recharge its batteries. Ted lowered his head, his throat closing as he struggled to inhale the dry, sandy air.
The faint clatter of the Humvee’s 6.5-liter diesel engine clamored in the distance. Ted raised his binoculars once again. Cyclops was now in view and gaining speed as it descended toward Athena.
“Come on!” Ted screamed. He released his binoculars and let them fall against his chest. He pushed a few people aside so that he could be flat against the barrier. Nico, Harry, and Lori quickly joined him. “Can he make up lost ground?”
“We programmed him for speed,” Harry said. “He goes full throttle once he makes that final turn.”
“But Athena’s in the way,” Lori added.
“I told you Ashton was our biggest threat.” Rusty had quietly made his way up behind everyone. “Now, we’ll see how well all of you did.”
Ted gave Rusty a brief glare before turning his attention back to the course. The rough concrete scraped against his palms as he gripped the barrier harder and harder. Athena and Cyclops were half a mile from the finish line. Cyclops slowed as he detected the Prius ahead of him.
“Move!” Ted cried. “Go around!”
Ted’s heart was racing. His eyes darted back and forth between the DSU and Ashton vehicles. As each second passed, he became more and more frustrated at the Humvee’s choice to simply follow the much slower Toyota.
“Why won’t he pass?” Ted asked. He turned to Harry. “Why?”
Harry stood motionless, staring out at the dusty barren field ahead. Suddenly, cries of “Go Athena!” rang out. Ted glanced around the crowd lining the barrier. Thirty feet away was team Ashton. Sam was crammed beside Ralph and Vin, all cheering for the Prius.
Ted raised his binoculars to get a closer look at the action. The path from the two vehicles to the finish line was clear. The gusting winds blasted sand across the field, reducing visibility. Ted knew that Cyclops, and most likely, Athena, would have no trouble seeing through the sand. He focused on the sensor array atop the Toyota. All Ted could think about was how Sam had told him her digital gimbal would be the superior technology. As Ted scanned the lidar array, the Prius suddenly fell from view. He adjusted his binoculars and zoomed out. A series of large tumbleweeds were blowing across the field. Athena had slammed on the brakes to avoid a collision. Ted smiled as Cyclops swerved to avoid rear-ending the Prius.
“Yes!” Ted screamed. “Go, Cyclops! Go!”
Cyclops, now clear of the Toyota, roared ahead, quickly passing Ashton’s entry. The tumbleweeds that had flummoxed the sensors on Athena did not hinder the Humvee. Cyclops blasted through them, and past the Prius, as the vehicle accelerated to forty-five miles per hour. Athena, now free of debris, began to increase speed. The Humvee, however, was already far ahead.
Ted flung one arm around Harry and his other around Nico and pulled them both against his chest. Lori jumped up and down, clapping and screaming. Rusty stood silent, nodding, and smiling as Cyclops continued to pull away from the Prius. DARPA had rolled out a black and white checkered tape to mark the end of the course. Cyclops, almost as if savoring its victory, accelerated faster as it snapped the tape in half, crossing the finish line well ahead of Athena.
“DSU is first.” The outdoor speakers crackled their announcement. Roars and cheers erupted across the hundreds of people clamoring inside and outside the tent. The group of reporters in the bleachers were all on their feet applauding. Several seconds later, Athena crossed the line. “Ashton second.”
Both vehicles, following their programming, slowed to a halt in a small staging area far away from the finish line. DSU and Ashton were the only two vehicles competing for first place. The rest of the entrants were over five to ten miles away. It would be quite some time before DARPA would know who came in third.
“Did we win?” Lori asked. “What’s the final score?”
“DARPA’s damn points system is still a mystery.” Rusty looked at the oversized outdoor monitors beside the stadium seats. The screens remained pitch black. “We came in first
time-wise, but I don’t know if there were any penalties or deductions. Both vehicles had hiccups along the way. Who knows how long—”
“We now have the results.” A hush fell over the crowd as many eyes looked up toward the overhead speakers. Ted looked over at Sam. She smiled and nodded. Ted’s heart pounded in his chest. He closed his eyes as the DARPA announcement rang out. “The winner of the road race is DSU, followed by Ashton.”
Ted opened his eyes and screamed. Lori, Harry, and Nico jumped up and down, clapping and cheering. All four held one another. Tears ran freely from Harry and Nico. Ted turned and looked at Rusty. He was busy looking at the monitors next to the bleachers. The leaderboard flashed to life, showing DSU ahead of Ashton by two points.
“Well?” Ted asked Rusty.
“We still have the third and final Urban Challenge ahead of us. Let’s not get too excited.”
Ted frowned but began to chuckle. Rusty’s refusal to enjoy the victory would in no way prevent him from savoring the moment. Cyclops was idling several dozen feet away. A jet black Chevy Tahoe chase vehicle carrying a roof-mounted camera crane that jutted out ten feet from its side followed the action into the staging area. Ted, filled with pride as he gazed upon the towering lidar array perched atop the custom gimbal he’d designed, saw the Chevy keep coming as it approached the Humvee.
“Stop!” Ted screamed. But his cries were too late. The camera assembly slammed into Cyclops’s gimbal supporting the central lidar system. “No! Cyclops!”
Still screaming, Ted jumped over the concrete barrier as he sprinted to Cyclops. Harry, Nico, Lori, and Rusty were close behind. As Ted neared the Hummer, the Chevy’s door opened, and Kyle Fisher emerged from the driver’s seat.
“What have you done?” Ted grabbed Kyle by his shoulders and threw him back against the Tahoe’s rear door. “Look! Look! What the hell is wrong with you?”
From nowhere, Rusty’s hands appeared, taking hold of Ted’s shirt collar to jerk him away from Kyle. Rusty held on to Ted for several seconds, allowing Ted to calm down.
“Jesus,” Kyle said as he noticed the end of the crane jammed into the top of the Humvee.
“You built an empire on driving off-road racers, and you can’t even park a Chevy?” Ted yanked himself free from Rusty’s grip and stepped within inches of Kyle. “You better pray you didn’t cause any permanent damage.”
Ted spun around to check on Cyclops. Nico was already hanging from the side of the SUV, inspecting the impact point. Ted hauled himself up beside Nico.
“Well?” Ted asked Nico.
“Duct tape won’t solve this one.”
The camera at the end of the crane was demolished. All that was left was tattered shards of plastic and wire. The assembly connecting the camera to the crane was jammed into one of the magnetic mounts supporting the lidar’s gimbal. Ted tugged gently at the beam to try and free it. After several pulls, it popped loose. The gimbal shuddered, finally free from the pole.
“How’s it look?” Kyle asked cautiously, nervously flicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. He stepped closer to the Hummer. “Can you fix it?”
Ted struggled to control his anger. He found it difficult to focus on how to repair the damage. His hands trembled as he tried to sift through the torn metal and broken connectors. He squeezed his hands into fists to try and stop them from shaking. Part of him wanted to turn around and punch Kyle in the face. Wind blasted sand into his eyes, causing even more tears to flow down his face.
“What’s the damage, Ted?” Rusty asked. His voice was calm, cool, and controlled. “Give it to us straight.”
“I’m . . . I’m not sure.” Ted’s eyes darted back and forth as he made a mental inventory of the parts that would need to be replaced. He took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down. “The gimbal looks fine. There’s a slight bend where it connected to the magnetic damper. But the mag shock itself is toast. It was sheered from its mounting point. I don’t know if we can repair that. And the servo controls. They look shot.”
“I can make it work,” Nico said confidently. “We have spare shocks in the truck. Servo controls, too. I should be able to rig something.”
“Nico, the system is programmed specifically for the magnetic dampers and gimbal.” Harry was sweating profusely a few feet away. He removed his glasses, and nervously wiped them dry. “It has to be an exact match. Otherwise, we will have a lot of code to adjust.”
“I know!” Nico leaped from the top of the Hummer. “I’ll be right back.”
A large crowd had formed around the Hummer and Chevy. Competing teams were grouped together, all wearing their coordinating shirts and hats. Many were pointing at the camera and the DSU team inspecting the damage. Sam pushed her way past the Oshkosh team and stopped beside Cyclops’s front fender. Ted let out a sigh when he saw her and slid down from the side of the vehicle.
“How bad?” Sam asked. She stepped forward and ran her hand across the Humvee’s doors.
“Nico’s convinced we can fix it.” Ted glanced over at Kyle. He and Rusty were having a quiet discussion beside the Tahoe. “Twenty autonomous vehicles battling across the desert, and we get taken out by a human driver.”
Sam let out a chuckle and quickly stifled herself. Ted allowed a grin to escape.
“Well, . . .” Ted said. “I’ll probably think it’s a whole lot funnier later.”
Sam pulled herself up alongside the Humvee and inspected the damaged gimbal.
“For what it’s worth, congratulations on the win. I hope you can compete in the final test.”
“You do?”
“Of course. We’ve all worked hard to get to this point. We are pushing boundaries here. All of us.” Sam slid her aviators off, her green eyes dancing. “Besides, I don’t want to win because you had to default. I want to beat your ass fair and square.”
Ted smiled. He felt a bit of his anger and anxiety subside. He was surprised to realize that Sam’s playful taunting and genuine concern brought him comfort. He was about to say something about it when Nico came running back, carrying a crushed box.
“That was fast,” Ted said to Sam. “Too fast.”
“Bad news.” Nico hunched forward and dropped the box he was carrying. He was panting heavily and took a few deep breaths to regain his composure. “The box with the magnetic dampers was crushed.”
“What do you mean, crushed?” Rusty pushed his way past Ted to confront Nico. “How?”
“Everything in the storage locker was fine when we left to come to the race but the equipment stored above the box with the dampers worked its way loose during transit.”
“How bad is it?” Ted asked. He fell to his knees and began sorting through the components inside the box, his hands shaking as he extracted a collection of wires and struts. “What the hell did this?”
“Toolbox,” Nico replied. “More like three of them.”
“What’s the damage, Ted?” Rusty asked.
Ted and Nico spent a few moments scrounging through the contents.
“All four dampers are destroyed,” Ted said. “They look to be in worse condition than the one on top of Cyclops.”
Ted stood up and looked toward the horizon. He slammed his fist on the hood of the Humvee. Sam slowly began to step away from the DSU team. Lori and Harry took her lead and moved away from Ted, Nico, and Rusty. Walking over to Ted, Nico put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“So it’s over,” Ted said. “Without the dampers, we can’t control the gimbal.”
“Relax,” Rusty said calmly. “We can call DSU back in Pittsburgh. They can express ship a replacement part overnight.”
Nico lowered his head and shoved his hands into his pockets.
“We do have more dampers, don’t we?” Rusty asked.
“No,” Nico replied. “I thought it made sense to bring all of them with us.”
“And now they’re all destroyed?” Rusty did not wait for a response. His calm temperament was gone in an instant. He stepped forward, forcing Nico against the Humvee’s fender. “You’re telling me that our ace in the hole gimbal is now a piece of shit because you didn’t have a backup plan?”
Most of those who had gathered to check out the crash began to disperse. Rusty’s bellowing and bright red face told them this was a discussion strictly for DSU. Sam stayed, though, standing just behind Lori and Harry. Rusty turned his attention to Ted.
“You’ve got five dampers to work with, Ted.” Rusty’s temples throbbed as his voice escalated. “The four in the box and the busted one on top of Cyclops. Are you telling me you can’t patch them into a single working unit?”
Nico grabbed the box and placed it on the Hummer’s hood. He and Ted began to lay out the broken components. Ted used his arm to shield the wind and sand from blowing the pieces away, doing a quick inventory of each piece and closing his eyes to work out a solution. He began to shake his head and sigh. He took one last look at the damper crushed on Cyclops’s roof before turning to face Rusty.
“It’s a long shot,” Ted said. “All of the key mounting points are bent. I’m going to have to see what else we have in storage to try and slap something together. But this isn’t a quick fix. To properly repair, calibrate, and test everything is easily a week.”
“A week?” Rusty yelled. “Unacceptable! We don’t have that long.”
“I can try and cut that in half, but not without introducing a ton of risk,” Ted said.
“There has to be a solution!” Rusty was now pacing back and forth, his limp appearing to be quite aggravated. Ted was standing beside Nico for support. Both men looked exhausted and defeated. “Think! We didn’t come this far to win the road race only to be taken out by a goddamn camera! How can we get control of the gimbal?”
“It’s an integrated system,” Nico said. “The magnetic dampers are Ted’s design. We can’t just swap some other tech in there. This is my fault. I should have double-checked that everything was secured. I thought bringing all of the parts with us was the right move. I’m sorry.”