Three DARPA contests jumpstarted the truly driverless car. No one but the military seriously interested. The first contest was a joke with almost no one making

Three DARPA contests jumpstarted the truly driverless car. No one but the military seriously interested. The first contest was a joke with almost no one making it more that partway. But got pretty good by the third one. Googlr boughtnthe Stanford team. Like the Internet, this was another federal funding success, when private industry lacked the imagination.