Our high desert base camp is taking shape. Best estimate is that it's 25 miles from any evidence of civilization--50 miles from water. 4000 ft. elevation.

We blew a tire on the trailer 15 miles from our destination. Starter gave out on the tow truck, but only after we got to the base camp. So we spent the day getting to know the local auto dealers. Starter for the tow truck was easily available at the nearest auto parts store (35 miles in Bear Valley).

Mechnical team stayed the night at base camp and started installing the starter at first light. We got in a good day of testing. Some of the new modifications took a few hours to debug, but by day's end, we completed all our major test goals,including testing speed control on steep grades.

Also managed to capture some log files for the color camera looking to detect "green." Our goal is to pay the most attention to obstacles that are "not green." We now have our "Base Line" software release, and can begin to make incremental improvements. Soon we start testing the LIDAR (laser radar) sensors in real desert conditions. The LIDARs are one of our most important sensors. We're using 6 of them for now. May add more. The tests give us the first real look at how we'll perform in the white dust conditions of the Mojave. It's certainly different from what we anticipated. We'll know soon.