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. In this video podcast, Carnegie Mellon University's Red Team takes one of its two Grand Challenge vehicles, "Sandstorm," for a practice run in the Mojave on the most dangerous road it's ever driven.

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