14 DAY TRIAL // The X Prize Foundation is a non-profit prize institute that designs and manages public competitions for the benefit of humanity. During the course of its past activity, the X Prize Foundation held competitions such as the Ansari X Prize for Suborbital Spaceflight, the Ansari X Prize for Genomics, the Automotive X Prize and the Google Lunar X Prize. The ultimate reward for meeting the conditions posed by the X Prize in their challenges usually averages about 10 million US dollars or more.
For example, the Google Lunar X Prize challenge started on September 13, 2007, and has as main objective the construction of a rover which must be placed on the surface of the Moon, after which it must travel at least 500 meters and relay video feedback to Earth. The first team to do so will be granted 20 million dollars. The second objective represents a 5,000-meter drive on the Moon and the relaying of images of man-made objects. The prize for this leg of the competition is 5 million dollars as a bonus, plus another 5 million for other tasks.
Aside for the Ansari X Prize for Suborbital Spaceflight, all prizes for the other competitions remain unclaimed to this day. Now, the X Prize Foundation is launching yet another challenge. Build an eco-friendly car and win 10 million.
According to the X Prize officials, the goals of the competition are to build a viable, clean and super-efficient car which people will buy in order to become independent of the petrol industry and to reduce environment pollution as much as possible. As of today, 64 teams have gathered while the first tests will be held somewhere around 2009.
X Prize Foundation chief executive, Peter Diamandis, says that: "This is a race for the future; it is a race we must win." The looks of the car prototype are not a subject of evaluation, but rather the fuel efficiency over a distance of 160 kilometers while traveling at minimum speed. "We're talking about real cars that can be brought to market in the real term that people will want to buy," said Diamandis.
Petrol cars in the US are responsible for up to 45 percent of the carbon dioxide gas released into the atmosphere every year, while the greenhouse gas emissions cars occupy the fifth place. X Prize will only admit into the competition vehicles that emit less than 200 grams of greenhouse gases for every traveled mile.
US car manufacturers are renowned for producing gas-thirsty vehicles, but while the tendency has slowly shifted in the last years for more efficient cars such as hybrids, these vehicles are not exactly 'green'. In fact, recent studies show that they may be even more harmful for Earth's atmosphere than their petrol cousins. "This competition is an investment in the future of the automobile," said Progressive president and chief executive officer Glenn Renwick.
Both four sitters and two sitters vehicles are allowed in the competition, the minimum number of wheels being three. Additionally, the cars registered in the competition must be able to reach a top speed of 128 kilometers per hour in 12 seconds.
Amongst the teams that signed in the competition, we can find both start-up and established companies, but also university and high school teams. Senate Resolution sponsor for the X Prize Jeff Bingham stated that: "This prize promices to help harness the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of America's best minds to one of our greatest problems: our over-reliance on foreign oil. It should be an exciting competition and it is certainly a worthy goal. I wish them the best of luck and look forward to seeing the innovations they inspire."