I am a software developer and a car afficionado. These things collided in 2004, as I programmed a gas-powered car to drive itself through the desert on a 130 mile journey (see DGC 2005). It only made it 85+ miles before suffering a failure. Again, in 2006 I began programming a gas-powered car to drive through a city filled with other robot cars and human drivers (see DUC 2007). I went back to work dreaming of assembling a 1962 AC Cobra from a kit or some other misadventure. In the spring of 2019, Camelia bought a Tesla, and after driving that realized that not only were they more than toys, but they were viable transportation even for day trips to the beach. and they are SCREAMING fast! Being in the middle of rebuilding my WRX, I started looking into making it electric.

DGC 2005 - Darpa Grand Challenge ( https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/-grand-challenge-for-autonomous-vehicles )

DUC 2007 - Darpa Urban Challenge ( https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/darpa-urban-challenge )