The Volkswagen Touareg that was crowned as the first DARPA Grand Challenge winner in 2005 (the first challenge was in 2004, but no winners were crowned) is making a grand tour that will eventually lead the fully autonomous vehicle to the top dog of museums, the Smithsonian. The Touareg was nicknamed "Stanley" since it's…

As we mentioned earlier this year, the next DARPA Grand Challenge will remove all those spanky autonomous vehicles from the desert and drop them onto city streets, albiet mocked-up ones. Entrants, like VW's and Stanford University's Stanley the Touareg (pictured), must follow all traffic laws to find their way around…

Prop-heads set your Tivos on stun. PBS's "Nova" tonight will feature a look at last October's DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous vehicle race, on a episode it calls "The Great Robot Race." The program will follow contestants in the lead-up to the race followed by the competition, in which a Volkswagen Touareg named Stanley, …