The Daily Progress talked with us extensively to give a nice overview of what we're up to recently, especially with respect to the DARPA Urban Challenge.

Perrone Robotics, which Perrone founded and heads, initially became involved with the 2005 Grand Challenge to see how rapidly it could build an autonomous ground vehicle with as little money as possible.

Perrone said some of the other teams spent $2 million to $3 million and invested hundreds of man years of software in their vehicles. Tommy Sr., on the other hand, cost about $60,000 and required 10 man months of software.

Cost-effectiveness is a large part of both Perrone Robotics' and Team Jefferson's platform. This year, even with more support from sponsors, Perrone said they have spent "one-one-hundredth" of what other teams have. Perrone estimated Team Jefferson has put about $150,000 into Tommy Jr.