Volkswagen of America, Inc. has announced recently that it will participate in this year's DARPA Urban Challenge with Stanford University on November 3, 2007. The entry of VW for the said competition is its completely autonomous 2006 diesel-powered Passat wagon which is equipped with only the best auto parts that Europe's largest automaker can provide. As a fact even its Volkswagen valve cover gasket was specially made just for the Passat wagon.

The highly mechanical Passat will compete on a 60-mile simulated urban course that would include merging with traffic, negotiating with busy intersection and crossing traffic circles while keeping with the traffic laws.

The Passat wagon which is named Junior is a tribute to Leland Stanford Jr. who is the founder of Stanford University. It is equipped with electromechanical power steering and electric throttle, gear shifter and parking brake. The electric system and the brakes of the Passat wagon were modified by Volkswagen of America's Electronics Research Laboratory to turn it into a complete computer controlled vehicle. Similarly the custom mountings for its array of sophisticated sensors were specially created and built at the ERL. The brain of the car is comprised of Intel Core 2 Duo processors with multiple processing units per chip and with the addition of the software developed at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab makes the Passat wagon truly autonomous.

Dr. Carlo Rummel executive director of Volkswagen of America's Electronics Research Laboratory commented "After our victory at the last DARPA Grand Challenge, Volkswagen is excited to join the 2007 DAPRA Urban Challenge. We see an opportunity to further advance intelligent technologies for use in passenger vehicles of the future. The features developed for the Urban Challenge will ultimately make driving safer and more enjoyable in today's increasing dense traffic." Dr. Rummel also added, "With the fuel efficient Passat, we have the perfect vehicle for the job; just like our Touareg ‘Stanley' was for the desert race in 2005."

It should be noted that for the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge Volkswagen was able to win the two-million dollar grand prize with its diesel powered Touareg named Stanley. The Touareg defeated 22 unmanned vehicles in a drooling, 132-mile championship race which includes driving through rough desert roads, dry lake beds and tunnels, mountain trails, and using only onboard navigation and sensors. Touareg was able to finish the race after 6 hours 35 minutes with very little effort.