Darpa Grand Challenge Reveals No Winner
WHITFIELD: Well, robots rolled across the Mojave desert today, racing to win $1 million. But guess what? The race is over, and there's no winner. No one collecting the big prize, that is. Here's CNN's Daniel Sieberg with more.</s>DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Well, they came, they crashed, they stalled, one of them even caught on fire, none of the 15 robots that arrived here in Barstow, California, for the Darpa Grand Challenge were able to complete the race. Officials called it off. The only robot that was able to get the furthest made it about ten miles or so. Other than that none of them were able to complete the 200-plus mile course that was set out. These are autonomous vehicles that Darpa was hoping to test out here in Barstow. The race was designed between Barstow, California, and Primm, Nevada. They started here early today. They were lined up here in the start gate. There was a lot of excitement. A lot of enthusiasm. Even some helicopters overhead. Each of the robots had a chance to try to get out of the start area and make it as far as they could. A lot of excitement very early in the morning. Some of them crashed very early on. Others were able to make it a few miles or several miles before they stopped and ran into some problems. Now, the race was designed by Darpa, which is a research agency was the defense department in order to create these autonomous vehicles for the military. There's a congressional mandate set for 2015 at which time a third of the military vehicles need to be autonomous. So Darpa opened up this race called the Darpa Grand Challenge to anyone who wanted to come eat. And by the way, dangled a million dollar prize out there for anybody who completed it. And so no one was able to complete the race in the alLotted ten- hour time limit. As such, that million dollar prize will carry over at least for a couple of years until about 2006 when Darpa says they might hold this Grand Challenge race again. Back to the drawing board. For new Daniel Sieberg, CNN, Barstow, California.</s>WHITFIELD: You work your entire life to acquire the finer things in life right? But the reality is one day you'll have to leave it all behind. Who will trust -- who will you rather trust with your money and most valued possessions? Coming up, next in "Dollar Signs" we're talking will and estate planning. Just send us your questions at dollarsigns@cnn.com or you can call us at 1-800-807-2620. We'll be right back. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com Standoff In Tennessee Ends With Apparent Suicide; Darpa Grand Challenge Reveals No Winner>