A $2.5 million software problem

One of the three Very Light Cars designed by Edison2 a team led by Charlottesville entrepreneur Oliver Kuttner was eliminated Monday from the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize competition, but the team is very much still in the running for the contests top honor.

Edison2s two-seat tandem version of the Very Light Car suffered a catastrophic software failure at the starting line of the X Prizes acceleration test Monday at the Michigan International Speedway.

The silver car that weighs less than 800 pounds was competing against two Swiss-made motorcycle-like electric vehicles called ETracers in the X Prize’s alternative class competition that carries a $2.5 million purse.

“We had an engine problem, which was unfortunate because the car was running really well up until that point,”s aid David Brown, Edison2’s director of communications and a member of Charlottesville’s City Council. “It was potentially a $2.5 million software problem. This is a high-stakes competition.” The alternative version of the Very Light Car,which has one seat in the front and another in the back, demonstrated last week at the X Prize that it can travel up to 100 miles in range and can achieve a combined city and highway mileage of 109 miles per gallon of fuel.

In previous rounds of the X Prize – an international race to design and build the world’s first viable car that gets 100 miles per gallon – Edison2’s two-seat version of the Very Light Car passed acceleration, braking and accident avoidance tests.H ad it not been for the software glitch, Brown said, the car would almost certainly have passed the same tests Monday in the X Prize’s finals stage.

Edison2’s race to win the X Prize’s marquee event, however,i s still on track.

The team’s two four-seat versions are the only cars left out of the 80 vehicles that originally entered the

X Prize's "mainstream" con test, in which the cars must be able to travel 200 miles without refueling or recharging and must be able to meet the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon of fuel. The winner of the mainstream competition will receive $5 million.

Both of Edison2's main stream class cars aced the X Prize's safety test require ments Monday. The cars demonstrated that they l could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph within 15 seconds, brake while traveling 60 to 0 mph within 170 feet or less, and successfully navi gate an accident avoidance maneuver while driving 45 mph.

Edison2's pair of main stream vehicles will com pete against one another in a 200-mile combined speed , and efficiency race around the speedway today. Had Edison2's alternative class vehicle passed Monday's tests, it would be racing against the two E-Tracers . today.

Edison2 team members l had been eagerly anticipat ing the chance to race the E-Tracers, which are ex tremely fast and boast in credible levels of fuel effi ciency. Much of Edison2's crew comes from the profes sional auto racing industry.

Behind the wheel of the Very Light Car would have been accomplished Italian racecar driver Emanuele Pirro.

"It would have been a real race," Brown said.
, Next, the team's cars . will undergo "coast down" testing at Chrysler's prov ing grounds in Chelsea, Mich., where they will be tested for aerodynamic re sistance, rolling resistance and mechanical resistance.
Following that stage, the cars will be subjected to validation testing in August at Argonne National Lab outside Chicago.

The X Prize's winners, if any of the teams successfully emerge from validation testing, will be announced at an awards ceremony Sept. 16 in Washington.

Brown said Edison2 team members are feeling good about their chances of winning the $5 million prize, but realize they are not there yet.

"We're confident," he said. "All this stuff is kind of right on the edge. But we're feeling pretty good."

One other alternative class vehicle was eliminated from competition Monday. A side-by-side twoseat hybrid vehicle made by a team of Western Washington University students failed to pass the X Prize's braking and lane change tests. Like Edison2's alternative car, the team's vehicle had previously passed the same tests.

"It was what I might call a cruel twist of fate for both those teams," said Bob Larsen, the X Prize's race director.

The X Prize Foundation announced late Friday that four other alternative class vehicles had been eliminated after the finals stage's efficiency and range testing.
The status of one of these teams, Tata Motors, was changed to "pending" Monday.

Final results will not be announced until this morning, X Prize officials said.