Digital Auto Drive (DAD)

Robot: "DAD, Are We There Yet?"

Body: Toyota Tundra pick-up truck

Affiliations: Entrepreneurs, electromechanical inventors

Hometown: Morgan Hill, CA

Leaders: Bruce and David Hall

Team size: 7

Budget: A lot!

Key technologies: Custom spinning lidar sensor with 64 lasers providing up to 2.56 million data points per second. Designed using Texas Instruments' fastest DSP chips.

Biggest challenge(s): Time used up for proprietary state-of-the-art lidar sensor; not enough field testing and hardening resulted in a silly mechanical failure.

Race results: Out of race at 26 miles: mounting for lidar scanner failed, resulting in disconnected power supply to vehicle navigation system.

What they're up to now: Running their speaker company Velodyne Acoustics; evolving the lidar sensor for numerous future opportunities.

Where the vehicle is now: Taking them to and from work