without any further ado, let me ask all of you to give a warm welcome to chris urmson. pplause] chris, thank you so much for being here in l.a. take us back. 10 years ago, you were here for the darpa challenge. tell the audience what that was? how that was the kickoff for the modern self driving revolution. chris: sure. thank you very much. before you start, just make you for the invitation today and to the mayor's office for hosting us, and for the introduction. it is not clear if i will be able to get my head through the door after all that. 10 years ago, even longer, 14 years ago, the defense department announced the first grand challenge. the idea was to drive a car from los angeles to las vegas across the desert without remote control, without a midget hiding inside. the idea was, can we help men and women that are in harms way driving supply convoys in unpleasant places of the world? it was announced as the grand challenge. it was akin to wennberg crossing the atlantic. no one believed we could do it in a timeframe that was meaningful. we went out for the first cha

without any further adieu, let me ask all of you to give a very warm welcome to chris urmson. [ applause ] >> chris, thank you so much for being in l.a. take us back 10 years ago, you were here for the challenge and tell us for those who don't know how it was the kick-off for the modern revolution. thank you. and thank you for today and the mayor's office for hosting us. for that introduction. it's not sure if i will get my head out through the door after all of that. 10 years ago, even longer now, i guess, 14 years ago the defense department announced the first grand challenge. the idea was to drive a car from los angeles to las vegas across the desert and do that without remote control and do it without a midget hiding inside, wrapped in aluminum foil or anything. the idea at the time was can we help our young men and women in harm's way driving supply convoys across the deserts in unpleasant places in the world. back then it was announced as the grand challenge, akin to lindbergh crossing the atlantic. no one believed we could actually do it in a time frame that was meaningful. we wen

let me ask all of you to give a warm welcome to chris urmson. [applause] chris, thank you so much were being here in l.a.. take us back. 10 years ago, you were here for the darpa challenge. was?the audience what that >> sure. thank you very much. for the imitation and to the mayor's office for hosting us. it is not clear if i will be able to get my head through the door after all that. 10 years ago, even longer, 14 years ago, the idea was to drive a car from los angeles to las vegas across the desert, without , without a midget hiding inside. help menwas, can we and women that are in harms way drive supply convoys in dangerous parts of the world. it was announced as the grand challenge. no one believed we could do it in a timeframe that was meaningful. we went out for the first challenge. it was about 150 miles. the team i was the technical director for got stuck, burst into flames, and that was it. then, we drove into three fence post. it was an awesome day. hourd drive 40 miles an across the desert, with nobody on board. the media said, this is