IT Conversations is providing a live audio stream of the event from observers' cell phones.

Okay - I've posted the results below. It looks like two teams made it a whole 7 miles. And unfortunately, OSU wasn't one of them (Terramax). They made it 1 mile. Out of 142. Go Buckeyes!

Unofficial Results
Total Course Length: 142 miles.

Team # Name Miles Along Course Status Update Time
22 Red Team 7 Disabled 08:38:52
21 SciAutonics II 7 Disabled 10:38:53
5 Team Caltech 1 Disabled 10:57:22
7 Team DAD 6 Disabled 10:44:53
25 Virginia Tech 0 Disabled 07:58:15
23 Axion Racing 0 Disabled 10:36:22
2 Team CajunBot 0 Disabled 10:36:47
13 Team ENSCO 0 Disabled 10:57:22
4 CIMAR 0 Disabled 10:18:16
10 Palos Verdes RoadWarriors 0 Disabled 10:00:40
17 SciAutonics 1 Disabled 10:57:22
20 Team TerraMax 1 Disabled 10:57:22
15 Team TerraHawk 0 Withdrawn
9 The Golem Group 5 Disabled 10:57:22
16 The Blue Team 0 Withdrawn

I watched a live satellite broadcast of it... it was actually pretty fun, though it's too bad none of the entrants reached the finish line.

- Sandstorm, the first one, was one of the two that reached the seven-mile mark. It was based on a Humvee with the top cut off to fit in a huge computer server. It made a respectable initial showing, but conked out due to engine problems. (While some people may think that the entrants should have been allowed to repair any non-software failures in the machines, the fact is that you wouldn't be able to put a mechanics team on the surface of Mars to fix the same problem, if it happened there.)

- The third bot to leave, Bob, tried to use dual video cameras and recognition systems to negotiate the course. Unfortunately, its startup demonstrated the fact that computers have a REALLY hard time processing digital information. It would drive 30 feet, then suddenly come to a complete halt, drive another 30 feet and then come to a complete halt, and so on until it was out of sight. It gave out just one mile into the course.

- DAD, the fourth bot to leave the starting paddock, was the most interesting driver... it was based on a Toyota pickup, and drove like Mario Andretti on crack. The sucker took the first turn on two wheels, and managed to pass Bob easily. It made it six miles, and though I haven't heard what happened to it, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it took a turn too hard and rolled over.

- The fifth robot, Cliff, was the first sign that the race might not go quite as well as planned. It got about 50 yards from the paddock, and then stopped dead. After about ten minutes of pausing and unpausing it to try to get it to move, they finally disabled it and towed it off the track.

- The sixth robot, "Spirit" (the actual name was The Spirit of something or other, but I can't remember what it was), was the first time the event descended into hilarity. It made it to the first turn... and turned in the opposite direction to it. Oops. To it's credit, it stopped before it slammed straight into the retaining wall, but it took about three minutes before it figured out what to do about this problem. It finally decided to back up about a foot or two, and then start driving in tight circles in the middle of the track. Three million dollars, and they managed to produce a vehicle capable of doing donuts. It then stopped again, and started going straight once more... only in the wrong direction. It drove right back into its starting paddock, and stopped there. You could almost hear the server saying, "Screw this, I wanna go home!"

- Cajunbot was the seventh entry, and the first one that actually looked like one of the Mars rovers, instead of a car with a big computer in the driver's seat. Unfortunately, they took nearly two hours before they said they were ready to start, for some reason (last minute software glitch, maybe). When they finally lifted the tape to let it out, it then decided to do a fine impression of a six-wheeled paper weight. I still can't believe they gave the team two hours instead of just calling time on them and moving to the next bot.

- While I was waiting for Cajunbot's team to finally haul their piece of crap back to the scrapyard, I started playing video games to occupy the time, so I missed several of the other entrants. I returned to watching the webcast just in time to see UCBerkeley's contribution... a motorcycle. That's right, not content to just build a vehicle that was actually stable when at rest, they were going to show the world who was the smartest by running the course with a driverless motorcycle! No need to test it, the theory is perfectly sound, and our programming team is the best! They don't have any experience in engineering or design, but they expand their intellects with mind-altering drugs! And, naturally, it didn't even make it out of the paddock before it fell on its side. Guess it's back to the drawing board, or maybe the acid trip. But hey, at least our dev team speaks eight different languages! It's a triumph for multiculturalism!

The whole thing sounds like a Revenge of the Nerds sequel. Still, they probably did a lot better than I would have, so more power to them. Let's hope it works out better the next time around!