Why does he get all of the credit for this? He was part of a team.

Sure, but he was the team leader. I was part of a team that built autonomous vehicles too, but the fact that there were others involved doesn't stop me writing "built an autonomous vehicle" on my CV.

There was no team without him, period.

Why do you say that?

on the other hand there was no stolen intellectual property without him either.

I for sure would have remembered some rinky dink motorcycle lining up for the start in Primm in 2005. His team didn't make it past the NQE in LA, IIRC.

The physical object is in the Smithsonian [1]. There's footage of it falling over in 2005 [2][3]. Is that enough? :-P

1) http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah... 2) http://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/the-blue-tea... 3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bkhviWgSg

Alas, no.

The 2005 Grand Challenge was divided into two parts: the national qualification event, where you went around an obstacle course on a closed raceway in an effort to qualify for a limited number of race slots, and the real race, which was a brutal 150 mile course through some pretty gnarly desert terrain.

Blue Team never made it past the NQE, which is why everyone's obsession with the motorbike makes no sense to those of us who actually made it to the real deal.

The Smithsonian's decision to memorialize Levandowski's engineering mediocrity is, to say the least, puzzling.

Ah, understood. Thanks for clarifying that, and apologies for misrepresenting the achievement!

You missed his creative brilliance, he couldn't compete head on with other teams, but he had a more economical vehicle while upping the stakes.

Video of the guy and his bike https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CYGT97i8qU

If that blows your mind then you should watch this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XFXj81mvInc

...and keep in mind that this was done around 1990.