Carnegie Mellon University's Tartan Racing team rode away with a $2 million prize for coming in first in this year's Pentagon-sponsored robotic vehicle race held Saturday in Victorville, Calif.

The team's vehicle, "Boss," turned in the top performance as it navigated -- by itself -- through the Urban Challenge course at the former George Air Force Base.

It and the 11 other finalists had to merge into moving traffic, navigate traffic circles and avoid obstacles without human intervention.

"It's a significant day for robotics," said William "Red" Whittaker, Carnegie Mellon robotics professor and team leader of Tartan Racing. "The world got to see great driving by robots. This is a phenomenal thing for robotics."

Dr. Whittaker said the California driving code was in effect and the robots had to follow the speed limit as they reached their destinations.

"A day like Saturday demonstrates to the world what robots can do," continued Dr. Whittaker. "In the beginning of any technology, no one really believes. That was true of the first computers, rocket ships and the first robots."

Sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, the Urban Challenge was the third robotic vehicle competition that the agency has held since 2004 to develop technology to save lives on the battlefield.

Tony Tether, director of DARPA, said all of the robots navigated the course well and operated in a "safe and stable manner."

So, Dr. Tether said, speed became the determining factor.

And Boss bested the competition with an average speed of about 14 miles per hour over approximately 55 miles, finishing the course about 20 minutes ahead of the Stanford University vehicle.

"This is really a fantastic accomplishment," Dr. Tether said. "I watched these things driving and I forgot after a while that there was nobody in there."

Dr. Tether said autonomous driving technology will save lives on the battlefield by removing soldiers from supply convoys and other vehicles in harm's way.

As the second-place finisher, Stanford received $1 million. Virginia Tech's Victor Tango team finished third and received $500,000.

The robotic vehicles entered by teams from the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell Univeristy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also finished the race, though Cornell's and MIT's both exceeded the six-hour time limit set by DARPA.

The Tartan Racing team includes Carnegie Mellon faculty, staff and students from the School of Computer Science's Robotics Institute and the College of Engineering. It received major support from General Motors, Caterpillar and Continental AG, with engineers from those companies and Intel embedded with the team in Pittsburgh.

Boss was rigorously tested during its development, with two identical versions of the vehicle logging more than 2,000 autonomous miles, many on a brownfield site in Hazelwood known as Robot City.