March 26, 2004

Robots Left in the Dust in Race Across the Mojave Desert

By BROCK READ

And the winner of the Defense Department's much-hyped robot race across the Mojave Desert is ... no one.

The department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency had offered a $1-million contract to the team whose driverless rolling robot first completed the Grand Challenge, a grueling 142-mile race from outside Los Angeles to near Las Vegas this month. But no vehicles came close to taking the checkered flag: The event's top finisher, a Humvee remodeled by a team from Carnegie Mellon

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