Self-driving Ford Hybrid SUV to sell for $89,000

For sale:

One brand new autonomous Ford Escape Hybrid. Low miles, driven only to the showroom. Prototype version created by Virginia Tech researchers finished in third place at the DARPA Urban Grand Challenge. Utilizes Torc's ByWire XGV drive-by-wire system; to be made available as a research platform in the field of robotic vehicles. Let it drive you off the lot today, $89,000 OBO.

[Image courtesy of CNET]

[Paulmichael @ Jun 11th 2008 5:50PM]

Haha that'd be a brilliant classified listing, I'll take it!

[Low Ranked @ Jun 11th 2008 5:59PM]

I'll take a Viper SRT-10 for that price.

[boatboy @ Jun 11th 2008 6:03PM]

for 90k, that thing better drive itself off the... oh, wait.

[Jimmy @ Jun 11th 2008 6:06PM]

I'll take a $500 used MBZ 300D and drive myself. If Diesel gets too expensive (already has) I can just use old vegetable oil. Lets see, you get a bio-fuel car with very inexpensive (if very hard to get in large quantities) fuel and decent (20+) mpg.

Or i could drop close to $100K on a ford escape. which is what this is. a FORD ESCAPE.

[bobbobfredfred @ Jun 11th 2008 10:59PM]

$500? I'm sorry to say, but people have finally realized the value of those cars. I got my 1984 Mercedes SD TurboDiesel for 2500. And then much more for repairs, but it will be oh so worth it as soon as my vege oil kit gets here. 19 cents a gallon anyone?

[Jimmy @ Jun 11th 2008 11:43PM]

sounds like you got an exceptionally nice one. I personally look for high mileage MBZ cars. I dont care much for aesthetics in a car, its just transport for me and my stuff. Maintenance is usually not much of an issue as long as the radiator doesn't die (they love to overheat in the middle of freeways when its least convenient/safe). My father picked one up for $200 two years back. They remain dirt-cheap in my area due to $5.00+ diesel prices :)

[d @ Jun 11th 2008 6:09PM]

and STILL less expensive then the Tesla Roadster

[giantenemycrab @ Jun 11th 2008 6:12PM]

Also for sale is the (RED) version, it's $20,000 more, BUT it's red.

[Tim @ Jun 11th 2008 7:19PM]

You do realize (RED) or (PRODUCT)RED is a charity, right? its not just an arbitrary price bump. So the 20k would go to AIDs and malaria relief efforts.

[scott @ Jun 11th 2008 7:32PM]

you do realize (RED) is about making money more than giving? ex: GAP (RED) boxers cost 12. normal cost 8. same price to make both. only 10% goes to charity. they make more money selling red boxers than normal boxers.

hardly any corporate charity is more charity than profit =(.

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Jun 11th 2008 9:02PM]

Scott is correct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_Red#Criticism

If anything it is a PR bonus with negligible overhead for firms that participate. Of course some of the money is going to worthwhile causes, albeit a very small percentage. If you are serious about helping out, your money would be better spent buying the non RED product, and donating the difference in price directly to a charity.

[loosely_coupled @ Jun 11th 2008 9:48PM]

Funke, you are correct that it would be better to buy the cheaper one and just donate the difference to charity, but you know as well as I that people are stupid and won't follow through on that. Neither would they have even been thinking about charity if they hadn't seen the option of product (RED).
Even if it's a tiny percentage of the revenue, ALL MONEY HELPS.

It's currently a very sad state on the earth, where the vast majority of money earned by an individual in a developed country(America especially) in spent on themselves and family, and very little finds its way to people in dire need of such basics as food, clean water, shelter, and basic healthcare.

We should all be ashamed that millions of children die each year of malnourishment, contaminated water, and preventable diseases. God help us all...

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Jun 11th 2008 10:27PM]

LC,

You make a good point. For those consumers not in the know, it is better than nothing. The massive amount that is spent marketing is probably a necessary evil, as without consumers identifying Red as being charitible, very few would be willing to pay a premium for what in their eyes would simply be a different colour.

I sincerely hope that once they've firmly established Product Red's purpose among consumers, they can scale back the amount of proceeds that go to marketing, and devote a larger percentage of their take to charity. This might be wishful thinking though.

[John @ Jun 11th 2008 10:44PM]

so you expect people who work for a living, hate their jobs, come home every day to bills and read about taxes in the news to say, you know what, I should give my money to those people without food. Most people work for their money and don't feel that they get enough for what they do. there are some who get obscene amounts for not really doing anything apart from allocating other people's money or, for the truly talentless, acting, and it's disgusting how much money they waste, but the vast majority are just trying to get by and live their lives. Can you really blame them?

[Peter @ Jun 11th 2008 6:14PM]

I could pay someone to drive me around for less than that.

[Reader @ Jun 11th 2008 6:40PM]

For like a year, this'll last ten.

[waddaya @ Jun 11th 2008 6:49PM]

You mean 10 seconds, before you need to fix something.

[Jhongerkong @ Jun 11th 2008 6:14PM]

Ill buy it but im in England right now. I have arranged for a money transfer through Western Union and you will receive payment once I get a tracking number.

[Paul Rivers @ Jun 11th 2008 6:21PM]

Man, self driving cars would be awesome. We'll see them someday - imagine the problems they'll solve. We won't have to worry about drinking and driving any more. You'll be able to do something else while your car drives you to your destination. Even bike commuting could be better - a car doesn't have lapses in attention, and with a decent processor probably has the time to see everything that's going on at an intersection. Remember how you were 14 and you wanted to go places, but you weren't quite old enough to drive? Voila - the self driving car will drive you there!

Now, I'm sure they'll take a rather long time to become really stable, and I'm certainly not going to buy the first one off the lot. But man - they sure would be awesome. :-)

[Tim @ Jun 11th 2008 7:22PM]

What I think the best thing about self driving cars will be is replacing taxis - with a smart electric design and no driver, "taxis" could line up at subway/bus stations, and finish your public transportation journey. People can still drive themselves outside of the city, where it can be enjoyable, but who wants to drive in the city?

[HighTeckRedNeck @ Jun 11th 2008 8:34PM]

Ok, since I work in one of the labs that is developing autonomous vehicles (not one involved with *this* vehicle, but still...), I've seen a few prototypes and been lucky enough to help with the software that runs them. It's a corporate lab that has a thing for not divulging company secrets, but I think I can make a couple predictions:
1. It will be a few years. I'm guessing the first models will go on-lease sometime in 2012 - 2015.
2. It will be gradual. We have self-parking now, sort of. Soon there may be steering assist functionality added to cruise control, and things will slowly move towards city-capable cars.
3. It won't be a nice ride. The hardest part by far is making the things move at a reasonable speed without slamming on the brakes to stop, and making it take unknown corners smoothly without slowing to a crawl or backing up.

[ben @ Jun 12th 2008 3:55PM]

As long as it doesn't crash, I will take it!

[Wes @ Jun 11th 2008 6:25PM]

Yay Virginia Tech! It's right down the road from me :-) Not a bad deal for self-driving and hybrid! 50,000 for the hybrid and 39,000 for the self driving...

[Logan @ Jun 12th 2008 10:37AM]

Yeah im a VT engineering student... ive seen the prototype in person its nice!!

[waddaya @ Jun 11th 2008 6:52PM]

So does Fix Or Repair Daily still apply?

[johnzilla @ Jun 11th 2008 11:09PM]

No.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19073071/

http://www.strategicvision.com/press_release.php?pr=31

[Stephen @ Jun 11th 2008 6:54PM]

So...wasn't the hybrid donated in the first place?

[Beau @ Jun 11th 2008 6:58PM]

Hello, I'm a Johnny cab, where to sir?

[Chris S. @ Jun 11th 2008 7:00PM]

In about 10 years these cars will be selling at a reasonable price. I can't wait to own one but not a Ford Escape.

[plaid thermos @ Jun 11th 2008 7:01PM]

if it drives itself why does it need windows. Put a big plasma tv in place of the windshield and take vehicle entertainment to a new level.

[S-Fin @ Jun 12th 2008 6:17AM]

...because the driver isn't available for Linux yet...


Sorry, I'll pipe down now.

[michas_pi @ Jun 11th 2008 8:30PM]

If only it was also self-paying...

[man.dovvn @ Jun 11th 2008 9:50PM]

Low rank me if I'm wrong, but doesn't drive-by-wire mean it's still human-controlled?

[johnzilla @ Jun 11th 2008 11:17PM]

No.

Drive-by-wire means there is no direct mechanical connection between the controls and the components they control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_by_wire

[JamesR @ Jun 11th 2008 10:16PM]

Maybe a car named the "ESCAPE" wasn't the best marketing idea for a self-drive vehicle. Just saying...

[Jimmy @ Jun 11th 2008 11:37PM]

My father used to be a mechanic and knows a bunch of people in the used car industry. $500 in SoCal picks up a very functioning (if a bit rusty/dirty) early 80s model, if you know where to look. For almost a year (in 2006) he drove a light blue one he picked up for $200. The hand cranked windows got stuck (he fixed em) and the sunroof had to be opened/closed by hand (extremely difficult) but the thing ran alright with no major incidents. Good enough for what I need. And with Diesel well over a dollar more than gas in my area, Diesel cars are even more depreciated than they should be. Where do you live that a 84 SD is $2500? For my area the hot car is a used civic. Now those are impossible to find for reasonable prices.

[Slick @ Jun 12th 2008 12:46AM]

mmhhh.. Virginia Tech beating M.I.T. in DARPA - Tech using Lab View, while M.I.T. used C++.. Lets Go Hokies

[Logan @ Jun 12th 2008 10:39AM]

I beleive MIT's (Land Rover?) crashed with another schools Porsche SUV... I want to say Clemson, but its been a while...