Pentagon Robot Challenge Goes Corporate

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer, Technology / Engineering

Decal worker Todd Martin puts on a Google sticker on a VW Passat called Junior, the Stanford University team's self-driving car entered into the DARPA Urban Challenge, at a decal shop in Redwood City, Calif., Monday, Oct. 22, 2007. While past contests evoked the Wild West, with teams working in the open desert on a shoestring budget, this year's is modern: The field is more savvy, the terrain is urban and corporate sponsors and public relations machines have entered the fray. Junior now sports the rainbow trademark of Internet search leader Google Inc., one of three new sponsors this year for Stanford. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

(AP) -- When the Pentagon's research arm first called for innovators to design and race a self-driving car to make warfare safer, a ragtag bunch of garage tinkerers, computer geeks and even high school students answered.

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