Dann was one of our geek-with-a-cellphone embedded reporters covering the DARPA Grand Challenge race on Saturday, March 13, 2004. This is Dann's wrap-up of the days events. From Dann's weblog:

"There were a number of common themes throughout the day. Every single team was very excited to be there, regardless of their race status. Every team is committed to returning for the next race. Well, so are we. Every team that I interviewed today is committed to staying together. All of them invited me to track their evolution over the course of the next year. I will, along with all of the other teams that I didn’t interview.

"One thing that was interesting about the make up of the competitive field is that each team’s vehicle possessed features and capabilities in which DARPA is very interested. When these features and capabilities are combined they paint a very interesting picture of one heck of a capable autonomous vehicle."

You can also hear the 92-minute highlights of IT Conversations' 12-hour live coverage of this event.