Like many Californians, Peter Diamandis has grown frustrated in recent years with the “madness” of the constant wildfire warnings he received.

But unlike most, he had a Rolodex full of wealthy benefactors and politicians, and a solution he’d used many times before: create a contest to find a better way.

On Friday, Diamandis, the founder of a group called XPrize, raised $11 million for the group’s latest competition: finding new ideas to track and stop wildfires.

It seems a little quixotic in light of wildfires, which have become increasingly destructive in recent decades as the impacts of climate change and suburban sprawl

west is west

vulnerability.

But the launch event, on a rooftop in Washington, D.C., with a charcuterie tray and a perfect view of the Capitol, was overflowing with optimism from tech billionaires, politicians and wealthy donors, some of whom sent in questions from an outside watch party. It also had support from federal agencies such as FEMA and California Lt. Governor Eleni Kounakis, who flew in for the event.

The aptly named Palmer Luckey, a 30-year-old founder of Oculus, a virtual reality company that sold for $2 billion, flew a bus on an overnight flight from California to announce he was the first team to compete for the price. He said in an interview that he cares more about solving the problem than winning the money, although he believes the money will motivate other contestants.

“I sold my last company for billions of dollars so I can do what I want,” he said. “We started working on wildfire technology because I think it’s very, very important. The money in this award honestly doesn’t matter to me.”

In remarks at the event, Luckey spoke confidently about eliminating all wildfires, arguing that software, not hardware, would make the difference in detecting and controlling them.

The four-year contest is not a win-win-all. Teams will compete for grand prizes of a whopping $3.5 million and a $1 million bonus prize to develop technology that can detect and fight fires both on the ground and from space using drones or other autonomous vehicles. For example, they are competing to see what technology can accurately detect fires in a state- or country-sized landmass in one minute or suppress them in 10 minutes with an autonomous vehicle.

Andrea Santy, who is leading the race for XPrize, agreed with Palmer that the prize money may not be the most important driver. Many teams will benefit from multiple rounds of live testing and validation that are difficult to organize independently, she said.

Awards like this, while focused on innovation, are a legacy. Lorenzo Ghiberti won a competition in Renaissance Florence to create a set of bronze doors for the Baptistry of St. John in 1401. Charles Lindbergh won a $25,000 prize in 1927 to make the first non-stop solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris to make.

Such competitions have seen a resurgence in recent years, but research shows they are not always the best way to attract innovation.

Zorina Khan, author of “Inventing Ideas: Patents, Prizes and the Knowledge Economy,” said in an email that her research showed “that pricing systems are often arbitrary and inefficient.”

“Prices serve to draw attention to specific issues, but generally do not result in scalable technologies that can be commercialized into end products that benefit users,” she added.

The organizers of XPrize seemed well aware of the value of attracting attention. The group said it is spending another $11 million to host the competition, not counting the prize money. Part of that money will go towards funding a documentary about the match.