This is a drone flying contest with a twist. Rather than humans operating drones, the drones must operate autonomously. The humans will be tested on their software-writing skills that cause the drones to outfly their competition. Someone suggested sponsoring a drone racing tournament, which was somewhat in line with the company's previous marketing tactics. For instance, Anduril sponsors the NASCAR Cup Series race known as the Anduril 250. Luckey generally liked the idea but then said, ''Guys, that would be a really dumb thing for Anduril to sponsor. The whole point, our entire impetus and reason for being, is this pitch that autonomy has finally advanced to where you don't have to have a person micromanaging each drone,'' he recalled, then adding, ''What we should really do is sponsor a race that's about how well programmers and engineers can make a drone fly itself.'' After discovering that such an event didn't exist, the company opted to create it themselves. Interestingly,...
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