On Your Mark, Get Ready... Don't laugh. This is the future of U.S. weaponry.(United States Army encourages private development of robotic vehicles)

Byline: Brad Stone

You definitely want to buckle in," Bruce Hall says from the driver's seat of his dusty, green Toyota Tundra, fingers poised at five black switches near the windshield where the map light used to be. We're on a circular street outside San Jose, California, near Hall's company, Velodyne Acoustics, and rolling lazily until Hall hits three of the switches. Suddenly the flatbed truck takes off. It screeches around a turn, avoids several parked cars and speeds up to 48 kilometers per hour. Hall is still in the driver's seat, but his foot is off the accelerator and his hands are by his side--which means the truck is driving itself.

This isn't as terrifying as it sounds. Two digital video cameras and a GPS antenna perched on the roof are sending data to two computer chips packed into an aluminum case where the sunroof used to be. The chips were programmed with navigation and obstacle-avoidance software by Hall's tech-savvy brother, Dave. The brothers also rigged the truck's steering, acceleration and (I'm desperately hoping) brakes to be controlled by computer. "Pretty neat, huh?" Bruce says as the Tundra rips around another turn.

The Feds will have the final say on that. The Halls, plus 20 other teams of technologists from around the United States, are gathering this week in the southwestern desert for a Pentagon-sponsored, cross-country robot race called the Grand Challenge. The contest comes courtesy of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. Army's research wing, which funded the stealth bomber and the early Internet, among other innovations. Qualifying rounds will precede the March 13 race, which promises a $1 million prize to the team whose autonomous vehicle can cross the 400 kilometers of desert from Barstow, California, to Primm, Nevada, in under 10 hours. The exact route won't be revealed until two hours before the race begins. Just in case of trouble, the organizers have a remote kill switch to stop each car.

DARPA's hope is that capable robot ...