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, several Grand Challenge entrants experience the crashes and collisions that are par for the course.

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/