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InnovationArts:

AUTOPILOTS: Virgina Film Festival Screening

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In partnership with the Virginia Film Festival:

AUTOPILOTS is a feature length documentary film about Paul Perrone, an obsessive underdog robot scientist who travels across country from Charlottesville, Virginia to compete in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge held in the Mojave desert of California. The Grand Challenge is an historic event established by an arm of the Pentagon which offered a $2 million prize to the group that could build a fully automated self-driving vehicle to race the 150 mile desert course.

Paul entered the race with Tommy, a silver, egg-shaped autonomous dune buggy, with its own decision making capability, to see the road ahead through artificial eyes, and with command over the throttle, brake, and steering wheel.

But Paul and Tommy are up against daunting foes. The competition's vehicles have been training in the desert, sponsored by well-financed institutes of higher learning, corporate conglomerates, and even the US government. But in a race with no one behind the wheel, anything can happen.

As we travel with Paul to the Grand Challenge, the real story of rapidly accelerating artificial intelligence, its application to large machinery, the military interest in such technology, and the ramifications of misuse and lack of human control are intertwined. In AUTOPILOTS, ride with Paul, his wife Janie, a team of underdog mechanics, and other characters who shed a little light on this question and reveal the key which unlocks the code to what it takes to overcome obstacles and achieve in this world.

Todd Free (Producer/Director) is a television commercial producer, documentary film director, and founder of Key Media Communications. His work has been featured in independent film festivals and in national televised broadcasts.

To learn more about Virginia Film Festival visit their website.





Schedule:

April 13:

Time: Event Venue: Price:
8:00 pm AUTOPILOTS: Virgina Film Festival Screening Old Metropolitan Hall

See Full Schedule >>