WMBD/WYZZ TV – MOSSVILLE  It was a big day for the Boss at Caterpillar.  No, we're not talking about a CEO.  Boss is a vehicle that drives itself.  It's designed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Grand Challenge.

  “Automation is absolutely the future,” Carnegie Melon Robotics Professor Red Whittaker says.

  Boss looks like a regular SUV, but with a few major improvements on top, and inside, like radar, lasers, cameras, sensors and GPS.  Boss was created for a contest; it's sponsored by CAT and designed by students at Carnegie Melon University's Tartan Racing Team.  This is the third year for competition.  This year’s challenge has shifted to an urban setting.  Boss can drive it self, park itself and even knows the rules of the road.  Caterpillar cosponsors the team and has one of their engineers embedded with the group.  Boss's censors even allow it to travel through intersections.  Essentially, it's able to think like you and I do when we're behind the wheel.  The urban challenge will take place in November.

  “The prize for the urban challenge is 2-million dollars and we plan to cash the check,” Whittaker says.

  Vehicles like boss might become more common in the not-too distant future.  These vehicles could soon aid the military.

  John Amdall, Director of Research and Technology at CAT says “DARPA… has put out a goal they'd like to have 1/3 of their military vehicles to become autonomous by 2015.”