Last night H1ghlander ran 175 miles, averaging 21 miles per hour. The total autonomous miles for the day was up to 250. For the past few days, H1ghlander's computers have been locking up, overwhelmed by heavy computation in the planner. That computation is now bounded, and the vehicle is now capable of running fast and long. The team now has reassurance that winning the race is within reach, and motivation to push on through these last 5 days of intensive testing.

Completing the distance required us to run on into the night. Driving at night is extremely difficult given headlights against thick dust. The robot was completely unphased -- even though it was driving the same speeds as earlier in the day, it seemed like it was going much faster because of the difficult of the driving for us. Here's a shot of the vehicle through the dark and dust:


Evan recently put up a video of Sandstorm driving here. Driving has improved even since that footage was taken.


Some other shots from yesterdays testing: