Microsoft teaches autonomous gliders to make decisions on the fly

In the Nevada desert, a team launched its two gliders with help from a hand-held remote control

As the glider turned and flew south, four men gave chase in a sport utility vehicle below, rolling through the Nevada desert.

From the front seats, two of the men tracked the glider by sight. In the back, the other two followed the flight on their laptops, eyeballing data sent from the glider’s tiny onboard computer and barking the figures into a walkie-talkie. In a Jeep up ahead, Ashish Kapoor listened as he, too, sped down the gravel road, eyes fixed on the white Styrofoam glider.

Soon, the glider took another turn. It gently circled an invisible column of rising hot air