43 contestants battling for a spot in a government-sponsored desert race intended to speed development of unmanned military combat vehicles
Participants ranging from souped-up SUVs to military behemoths will be graded on how well they can self-drive on rough road, make sharp turns and avoid obstacles -- hay bales, trash cans, wrecked cars -- while relying on GPS navigation and sensors, radar, lasers and cameras that feed information to computers.
The robots also have to heed speed limits in certain zones and pass through a 100-foot-long tunnel designed to temporarily knock out their GPS capabilities.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/09/....ap/index.html
I am shocked!