Never heard of the DARPA challenge? It’s great. Real cars are given robot drivers, and they race. Winner is covered in artificial, robotic glory. This year one of the leading contenders in the challenge is Axion Racing’s Spirit, pictured above. And the gaming relevance? Why, it’s “eyes” are a PS3. Running Linux, the PS3 is responsible for “realtime stereoscopic sensor data”, reading terrain info sent from cameras attached to the car’s underbelly. No word on whether it’s also responsible for “gathering dust” and/or “firmware updates”, but we’ll keep you posted! You can find out more about DARPA and Axion Racing after the, *ahem*, jump.

Sony PS3 Tools [Axion Racing, via Slashdot] The DARPA Urban Challenge [Official Site]