VRI's Eric Leonhardt: 'It's a longshot, but we do have a legitimate shot at winning'
A team of students from Western Washington University is among the dozen remaining entrants in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize competition, which is taking place through August in Detroit.
The team, from WWU's Vehicle Research Institute, has successfully completed the rigorous set of efficiency, safety, technical and range tests set before it in the past two weeks and will advance to the competition finals beginning July 19.
"This is a huge accomplishment for our team, these students and our technical support people," VRI Director Eric Leonhardt said. "We've been working on this for several years, but when you really get down to it, we put all this together since December."
The latest standings on the automotive X Prize website show that 15 cars from 12 teams remain in the competition. Eight of those vehicles are in the alternative side-by-side class, which includes WWU's Viking 45 vehicle.
The winners of each of the three categories (alternative side-by-side, alternative tandem and mainstream) will split the $10-million purse, with the mainstream winner getting $5 million and the two alternative winners splitting the rest.
"Honestly, it's a longshot, but it's also possible," Leonhardt said. "If our car doesn't break down, and if it runs like we know it can, we do have a legitimate shot at winning it."
On Monday and Tuesday, the WWU team passed a series of safety and emissions tests, which included a 0-to-60-mph acceleration test, a 60-to-0-mph braking test, a lateral acceleration ("skidpad") test, a 40-to-65-mph highway acceleration test and an accident avoidance (emergency lane change maneuver) test.
Last week, the team successfully passed several efficiency and range tests, achieving the equivalent of 82 miles per gallon (after 10 MPGe were deducted due to penalties) in city, urban and highway driving. The vehicle also completed the required 68-mile range test.
The final numbers for all of the teams in all of the knockout round events have been posted. To view the data in a PDF document, click here.
Finals testing includes a quick repeat of the static and dynamic safety checks, followed by a series of scored on-track challenges and a final "coast down" exercise to gain key performance information about the aerodynamics and rolling resistance to properly prepare the vehicles for the validation stage. Speed will be important, and a maximum and minimum time for events will be established.
The X Prize competition began with 111 teams and 136 vehicles that received the green light last April to compete. At the beginning of the first round of on-track competition, the shakedown, just 28 teams and 36 vehicles remained.
For an overview of the X Prize, watch this video from the X Prize Foundation. WWU appears at 3:13.
Stay tuned to Western Today for more information about the VRI's entry in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize competition. Also, here are some other ways to stay up to date on all of the news:
Twitter:
- Follow the WWU X Prize team: @WWUXPRIZETEAM.
- Follow the Progressive Automotive X Prize: @progautoxp.
- Conduct a search for hashtag #PIAXP.
- Updates specific to WWU also will be posted on the @wwunews and @WesternToday Twitter feeds.
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