DOD won't award cash in next robot race

"When you're trying to scrape together money just to buy a sensor and another team can just drop money to buy the same thing, it's hard to be competitive," said team leader Michael Vest.

Tether declined to be interviewed for this article, but said in a statement that he was pleased with the response from competitors.

"I never felt that people came for the money in the first place, although I knew they wouldn't turn the prize money down," Tether said.

DARPA's inaugural race in 2004 was a bust when all the contestants failed to complete the $1 million course. Last year's winner-take-all race produced five vehicles that crossed the finish line, but only Stanford won the $2 million check by zipping through the 132-mile course in six hours and 53 minutes.

"Having a prize money is a great additional motivator," Stanford computer scientist Sebastian Thrun said. "I'm sad to see that lost, but that's not going to affect my willingness to compete."

Some all-volunteer teams like CyberRider are inviting computer whizzes worldwide to share their computer algorithms, which tell a vehicle how to react. It has turned to Wiki collaborative software to make sharing easier. CyberRider, which lost half of its team members partly because of the absent prize money, said the communal style saves time and money.

"I'm not saying it will be successful, but it's the only way we can participate with limited resources," Schoenmeyr said.

DARPA's authority to hold cash prize competitions is spelled out in a law that expires in September 2007, two months before the competition. Earlier this year, Congress switched the authority from DARPA to its boss, the Director of Defense Engineering and Research. President Bush signed the law this week.

DARPA said the change essentially strips its power to dole out prize money. But congressional aides countered that the change actually expands the authority to other defense agencies. Jenness Simler, a committee aide on the House Armed Services Committee, said DARPA can still give out cash prizes as long as it works with its boss.

Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Brian Maka, said the agencies are still working out the details.

"We are not aware of a decision to not award cash prizes," Maka said in a statement.

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