In 2004, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a challenge: $1 million to the first team of engineers to develop an autonomous vehicle to race across the Mojave Desert.
Though the prize went unclaimed, the challenge publicized an idea that once belonged to science fiction — the driverless car. It caught the attention of Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who convened a team of engineers to buy cars from dealership lots and retrofit them with off-the-shelf sensors.
