The Defense Department said it was offering $1 million cash prize to the winner of a planned robot vehicle race between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.



The Grand Challenge, scheduled to take place on Feb. 28, 2004, is intended to spur development of technologies that could be used by the U.S. military.



The contest was the brainchild of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the Pentagon’s cradle for revolutionary technologies.