The DARPA Grand Challenge is a U.S. Department of Defense competition open to the public and intended to inspire new designs of autonomous ground vehicles. Bruce Hall is one of the two eclectic brothers who make up Team DAD (short for Digital Auto Drive). In this episode, ride along with Hall on his vehicle's first significant qualifying test in front of Grand Challenge judges.

This video podcast was produced and edited by Joe Seamans. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Major funding for NOVA is provided by Google and BP. Special funding for NOVA podcasts is provided by the MacArthur Foundation.

For more on the Grand Challenge, visit http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/youtube/redir/nova/robotrace