In the same week in which futurists and all people across the globe (and who-knows-where-else) said goodbye to the incredible Sir Arthur C. Clarke, age 90, it was on March 20th at the New York International Auto Show, that the X PRIZE Foundation and Progressive Insurance jointly announced the $10 million dollar Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. "Let the race begin!" said X PRIZE Chairman and CEO Dr. Peter Diamandis. Sir Arthur was no doubt pleased, wherever he was when the announcement was made. (Photo - Tesla, their roadster pictured here, and whose cars went into production this week, according to the company, have entered the X Prize competition for autos).
Long after the Raptors, the Corvettes and Challengers and Murcielagos and those ubiquitous Hemi engines (doesn't the newly-private Chrysler Corporation make any other engines?) at this week's New York Auto Show are forgotten (like, next week), it's quite possible that the winning vehicle, and those who created it, in the $10 million Ansari X-Prize competition for vehicles, will be well-remembered many decades from now. Here's the basics, taken directly from the prize's website:
The Ansari X PRIZE was modeled after the $25,000 Orteig Prize, offered in 1919 by wealthy hotelier 
Raymond Orteig, to the first pilot who could fly non-stop between New York and Paris. The prize was finally won in 1927, by an unknown airmail pilot named Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh won the hearts of a nation, and his world-changing achievement spawned a $300 billion aviation industry. (Photo - Richard Branson has been active in the X Prize contests on land and in the air, well, in space, actually).
The X PRIZE Foundation began a revolution in private spaceflight with the $10 million Ansari X Prize.On October 4, 2004, the Mojave Aerospace Ventures team, led by famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, captured the Ansari X PRIZE. The world took notice of this great achievement and the winning SpaceShipOne is now hanging in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.
The X Prize Foundation, best known for its competitions promoting space flights, is offering $10 million to the teams that can produce the most production-ready vehicles that get 100 miles per gallon or more.
More than 60 teams from nine countries have signed up for the competition so far, including California electric carmakers Aptera Motors and Tesla Motors, German diesel carmaker Loremo and a team
from Cornell University (where Carl Sagan studied and taught for many years).
Teams will be able to sign up through mid-2008, when applicants will be narrowed to those who can prove they would build production-ready, consumer-friendly cars. Those that qualify will race their vehicles in cross-country races in 2009 and 2010 that will combine speed, distance, urban driving and overall
performance.
The purse will be split between two categories: mainstream and alternative cars. Mainstream cars must carry four or more passengers and have climate control, an audio system and 10 cubic feet of cargo space. They also must have four or more wheels, hit 60 miles per hour in less than 12 seconds and have a minimum top speed of 100 miles per hour and a range of 200 miles.
Alternative vehicles will be required to carry two or more passengers and five cubic feet of cargo, have a top speed of at least 80 miles per hour and have a range of at least 100 miles.
The Santa Monica, Calif.-based X Prize Foundation, which was founded in 1995, gained fame in 2004 when it awarded $10 million to the first private vehicle to fly into space. The foundation since has launched a $10 million prize for rapid human genome sequencing and a $30 million prize for sending a robot to the moon.
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