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Originally Posted by Dean
The theory is that taking humans out of the driver seat in situations like supply convoys in potentially hostile territory, reconisace or mine sweeping.
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Recon and mine sweeping missions maybe, but not supply lines. Reason being that A: soldiers are cheaper than smart robots (meaning training and supply, etc.) and B: supply convoys have to be defended. You need people to be able to organize a defense, fight smart, and be supremely adaptable to the conditions of a battlefield. So unmanned vehicles might become a part of our ground forces at some point, but only as a uniquely capable tool rather than a replacement for soldiers. Point vehicles, mine sweepers, decoys, etc.- but probably very rarely would they actually be acting autonomously. The Air Force however, is well on their way to having unmanned combat aircraft, whether autonomous or remote piloted. Go here, shoot/bomb that, avoid these electronic signal sources, evade enemy fire like this; nothing extremely difficult to consider when programming them. Plus, you can program it to hightail it when things just don't make sense or it is likely incapable of completing the mission. Escape is much easier for aircraft than ground vehicles.
/off topic
That said, the technology and achievements of the challenge is pretty sweet. I'd personally like to see the day where we can have autonomous ground transportation for logistics purposes domestically. Probably not using our current highway and rail systems, but at least reducing the load on them.