SkyNet gets its muscles - DARPA offers $2 Million to the best unmanned ground vehicle

Twenty-three unmanned ground vehicles have qualified for the Defense Advanced Research Agency's Grand Challenge this weekend. The robots will race across 150 miles

They tried once already. That time they failed. In 2004 no robot came close to winning the event, which required the cars to complete a 142-mile course from near Los Angeles to near Las Vegas across the Mojave Desert. The farthest distance reached in 2004 was seven miles of the course.

This year robots, built by teams from all over the USA, will race across 150-miles on an undisclosed route, traversing dry lakebeds, speeding over steep mountain terrain, and ambling around obstacles on the desert route. The route is being kept secret until two hours before the race, expected to begin at 6:30 a.m., PDT, Saturday, near Primm, Nevada.

Slowly SkyNet gets its first muscles to fight against whatever its owners consider enemies. Or will the computers be owners themselves?

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