Hey Bob, its unrelated to the blind project that VT entered a CONTEST supported by the DOD to help engineering students learn to make automonous vehicles. When I was an aerospace student we did exactly the same thing for model aircraft. Its a legit competion that allows students to learn how to make computers do stuff like fly planes and drive vehicles and has been around for decades.
Its no different from dozens of other similar automation competitions that exist for engineering students across the country.
The DOD having a contest like this for any engineering school that wants to enter isn't the same thing as financing the research done for the blind organization.
If your reading comprehension wasn't so limited perhaps you could have read the following paragraphs that state that the blind group only used the tech from VT's automated vehicle entry to build the car for the blind organization.
The new vehicle originated, in part, from Virginia Tech's 2007 entry into the DARPA Grand Challenge, a contest funded by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop driverless vehicles.
Virginia Tech took third place in the competition, having built a self-driving car that used sensors to detect traffic and avoid hitting other vehicles and objects.
On the heels of their success, the team responded to an NFB challenge to help build a car that could be driven by a blind person.
__________________
2004 S60R - 350+ HP, AWD, Custom FMIC & Exhaust, Active Suspension & A Big Set Of Brembos
Crazy Camber, Stretch & Poke; its the new triple-stack-bleacher-wing ricer fad that's all the rage nowadays, lol