Automotive X PRIZE Announces Over 30 Teams Planned

In this press release, the Automotive X PRIZE announces that over 30 teams intend to compete for the Automotive X PRIZE. The announcement gives an overview of the prize, and describes some of the support (in addition to the number of interested teams) that the prize is getting, including support from members of both large U.S. political parties, and involvement and support by a number of government agencies.

From the announcement:

"In addition, non-governmental organizations supporting the AXP include the National Resources Defense Council, Union of Concerned Scientists, the Apollo Alliance, the Consumer Federation of America, Global Green USA, CALSTART and Greenpeace among others.

The AXP has recently finalized a supporting sponsorship from Adobe. Other early AXP sponsors and donors include Idealab, Ray Sidney of Big George Ventures, the Elbaz Foundation, and the Jack D. Hidary Foundation."

They are still doing more fundraising before officially starting the prize.

See the press release for a list of the teams, including links to most of them.

Update: It shouldn't be too surprising that Elon Musk's (more well known to space folks because of SpaceX) Tesla Motors is one of the teams that has signed up. I don't remember all of the details of the draft rules, and I also don't remember all of the details of Tesla's cars. My vague recollection is that the AXP is looking for a "car for the masses", and Tesla's current offering is sporty, fuel efficient ... and not very cheap. However, they may have plans for sedans: check out the Automotive X PRIZE discussion and judge for yourself.