Automotive X PRIZE Rollout

Today is the anticipated day of the rollout of the Automotive X PRIZE at the New York Auto Show. If you check out that link, you'll see that the title sponsor of the prize has already been effectively announced. You'll also see a Teams page with a lot more details about each team than the original bullet list.

X PRIZE Cars is also covering it already, and I'm sure many other sites will be taking part too over the course of the day.

Update (later March 20): X PRIZE Cars has a detailed update on the day's announcements, including a $3.5M Department of Energy grant (pending Congressional approval) to the Automotive X PRIZE to

create a national education program that will encourage young people to pursue careers in energy-efficient sciences and technology.

The linked press release describes the kinds of educational efforts that will happen. It sounds like student competitions will be part of it, and math, science, engineering, and teamwork skills will be emphasized in the context of fuel efficiency.

X PRIZE Cars has more on the title sponsor Progressive Insurance, the host city New York for the start of the race, and more information on the prize sponsors and other organizations helping the Foundation and teams. The post also covers the teams that showed up (more to come tomorrow), and promises a podcast of the event later.

Space for All also has a post on the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE and other fuel-efficient car efforts, including those by a well-known space entrepreneur.