1907 Peking to Paris Race
The 1907 Peking to Paris race victor won a bottle of champagne after a trip of 9,300 odd miles. Trains and camels delivered fuel and new tyres to servicing stations, but the car and passengers were on their own between stations. The race has been re-enacted five times, and more recent participants benefitted from truckers to drag them across flooded rivers.
Peking to Paris was organised 20 years after the London to Brighton run -- the run celebrated the lifting of speed restrictions in the UK, but it was used by car sellers to demonstrate the potential of their wares. London to Brighton was a day trip (if the car worked) but getting stuck in Siberia?
If the vendors of autonomous cars are serious, they have to build a car that goes from Peking to Paris on its own. One of the great things about autonomous vehicles is that nobody needs to die as part of the experiment. There will be times when every car needs to cross a river on the back of a weird looking truck. Aside from the time on the truck, the car has to drive itself.
After all, it's only 9,300 miles and Google tells us that their cars have driven millions of miles.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
