If Gator Engineers have their way, drivers may be one day be obsolete.

This sport utility vehicle has cameras on its bumpers, lasers on its roof and no use for a driver.

Eight lasers and three cameras are the SUV’s eyes and ears. They provide all the information its 10 computers need to form a picture of the world — and to drive right through it.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a part of the Department of Defense, issued the 2007 Urban Grand Challenge to universities and corporations around the world, and UF answered by enhancing a 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid.

The agency is developing automated cars in response to a 2001 congressional mandate that one-third of ground combat vehicles be unmanned by 2015.

The change would protect soldiers by removing them from dangerous war duties.

The technology has implications for city driving too, and this is the focus of Team Gator Nation, a collaboration of UF’s Center for Intelligent Machines & Robotics, Smiths Aerospace, and the Elgenpoint Co.

Gator Engineers unveiled the robotic SUV, nicknamed the Urban NaviGATOR, on June 27 for a crowd of about 30 at the Gainesville Raceway.

With its siren blaring, the SUV alerted anyone nearby that it was under its own control as the wheels started turning.

It drove around the rectangular test track and demonstrated its ability to adhere to its lane, pass a stationary truck and wait its turn at a stop sign.

It handled those trials flawlessly but botched the emergency-stop test.

“It’ll be a while before cars can drive as good as a human,” said Dave Armstrong, project manager and assistant in mechanical engineering. “But eventually, they [the cars] will drive better.”

In two separate attempts, a team member rolled a basketball in front of the moving SUV.

Both times the SUV stopped quickly, the first time hitting the basketball and the second time crushing it under the front bumper.

“It’s one of the things where you’re like, ‘D’oh!’” said Steven Velat, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student.

Velat leads Team Gator Nation’s perception team, which works on the sensors, and says he expects the team to move to the October semifinals and then the final competition Nov. 3.

Fifty-three teams, including Team Gator Nation, qualified for site visits on June 20 by race officials. Of those, only 30 will continue to the semifinals. Armstrong said he estimates that about 20 will be finalists, though no official number has been announced.

“If they don’t set the bar high to get in, it’ll be a wreck,” said Greg Garcia, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student and Team Gator Nation’s software-team leader.

The event is the third robotic-car challenge issued by the agency. The first two, in 2004 and 2005, were races to complete a 142- and 132-mile course, respectively, through the Mojave Desert in California and Nevada. The UF team competed both times, but did not finish the course.

The urban challenge will take place in a mock city block. A $2 million prize will be awarded to whichever team completes the 60-mile track in the shortest time before the six-hour limit.

Unlike the previous two competitions, in which the track and start times were designed to separate cars, all of the vehicles in this year’s competition will run the course simultaneously.

That means they need to avoid accidents with each other. Judges will investigate collisions and, applying California driving laws, will remove the offender from the race.

“With each one doing whatever it wants to, it’s gonna be wild,” Garcia said.

The team’s car is equipped with safety precautions in case anything goes awry. A remote-controlled command pauses it, and another engages the brakes independently of the computer system.

Riding in the car while it drives itself is an exciting but unnerving experience, Garcia said.

“It’s kind of like a roller coaster, except scarier,” he said.