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Do you worry when you see a driver on a cell phone coming your way? Well, imagine a future where the cars have no drivers. At DARPA's Grand Challenge race only robotic cars (technically autonomous vehicles) are allowed. DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—best known for funding the original work to found the Internet) is offering a cool $2 million to the team whose robot car can successfully complete a 150 mile course in the desert near Las Vegas without any human help.

This week the top 43 teams from an initial field of over 190 are competing on a changing 2.2 mile qualification course for 20 coveted spots in the desert finals. Teams are scored for completing the course without crashing into obstacles and for their total time.

The variety of vehicles is staggering—ranging from a motorcycle with a 90cc engine that can stay upright on its own and push itself back up when it falls over to a 32,000 pound hardened military truck which sends everyone scrambling when it starts to back up. Teams range from the highly experienced and well funded "pro" teams of CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) and Stanford to the scrappy undergraduate team of Princeton and even a team from Palos Verdes high school.

The variation in funding and experience is reflected in the complexity of vehicle design. The Stanford team, for example, has teamed with Volkswagen and has a specially modified "drive-by-wire" diesel Toureg. Team leader Sebastian Thrun has concentrated his staffs efforts on the software challenge of "finding the road" while leaving the vehicle engineering and control systems mostly to VW. Like most teams, Stanford and CMU use a combination of Laser (LIDAR) sensors, computer vision through video cameras, differential GPS and inertial navigation.

Princeton couldn't afford to work with Laser systems and instead concentrated on the less expensive but technically challenging option of using stereo video cameras to reconstruct a model of the area around their donated pickup truck to allow them to follow the road and avoid obstacles.

Some of the teams are also battling personal challenges. Four members of Team Gray from Metarie, Louisiana are without homes as their town is still under several feet of water and other teams were affected by the local wildfires. But everyone we met on every team was determined to make their vehicle a success.

Unlike last year where only a few teams even finished the qualifier course, over a dozen teams completed it in their first run this year. Stanford's "Stanley" led after two rounds with CMU's "Sandstorm" only a few seconds back. Finalists will be announced just in time for teams to move their vehicles out to the desert for the finals.

Click here to see the slideshow: DARPA Grand Challenge Preview