A robotic Volkswagen called "Stanley", developed by a team from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California won a $2 million prize on Sunday for sending a modified Volkswagen across 132 miles of rugged desert, guided only by sensors and computers in a race the Pentagon hopes will lead to a technological breakthrough in warfare reports Reuters.

Stanley, a converted VW Touareg SUV, finished the race in 6 hours and 54 minutes - well under the 10-hour limit - driving at an average speed of 30.7 kilometres per hour reports New Scientist

Coming in just after Stanley were a pair of modified Humvees built by a Carnegie Mellon University team. A modified sports utility vehicle called GrayBot also finished just after sunset on Saturday.

"These vehicles haven't just achieved world records, they have made history," says US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) director Tony Tether.