I’ve been reading about this robotic race that DARPA is setting up from CA to Las Vegas.  I think it is very cool that they would host such a thing, and it sucks that its very popularity is becoming an obstacle.  Ideally DARPA would just suck it up, delay the race a bit, budget some more money, and let everyone compete.  However, I understand that they are a government agency and as such have a lot of hoops to jump through.  I wonder, though, if someone else couldn’t step up.  Maybe some other interested philanthropist or university could host a race for the contestants that DARPA declines.  They could even have an online bake sale to raise the money – I’d be willing to throw a few bucks in the hat, as long the race videos were made publicly available on the internet!