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　　Thirteen vehicles lined up last March to race across the Mojave Desert, seeking a million in prize money．To win, they had to finish the 142-mile race in less than 10 hours．Teams and watchers knew there might be no winner at all, because these vehicles were missing a key part－drivers．

　　DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, organized the race as part of a push to develop robotic vehicles for future battlefields．But the Grand Challenge, as it was called, just proved how difficult it is to get a car to speed across an unfamiliar desert without human guidance．One had its brake lock up in the starting area．Another began by throwing itself onto a wall．Another got tied up by bushes near the road after 1.9 miles．

　　One turned upside down．One took off in entirely the wrong direction and had to be disabled by remote(远距离的)control．One went a little more than a mile and rushed into a fence; another managed to go for six miles but stuck on a rock．The “winner,” if there was any, reached 7.8 miles before it ran into a long, narrow hole, and the front wheels caught on fire．

　　“You get a lot of respect for natural abilities of the living things, ” says Reinhold Behringer, who helped design two of the car-size vehicles for a company called Sci-Autonics．“Even ants(蚂蚁)can do all these tasks effortlessly．It’s very hard for us to put these abilities into our machines．”

　　The robotic vehicles, though with necessary modern equipment such as advanced computers and GPS guidance, had trouble figuring out fast enough the blocks ahead that a two-year-old human recognizes immediately．Sure, that very young child, who has just only learned to walk, may not think to wipe apple juice off her face, but she already knows that when there’s a cookie in the kitchen she has to climb up the table, and that when she gets to the cookie it will taste good．She is more advanced, even months old, than any machine humans have designed．

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　　TOKYO－An express train traveling through strong winter winds derailed(出轨)in northern Japan, killing four people and injuring more than 30, officials said Monday．

　　Five cars of the six-car express train derailed Sunday evening, three of them topping onto their sides in Yamagata, about 189 miles north of Tokyo．The train was going from northern Akita to Niigate．

　　The injuries of the survivors did not appear to be life-threatening, Yamagata police spokesman Yoshikatsu Oe said．It was unclear how many passengers were on the train, but Oe said most of the injured were in the first two cars．The dead included two men and two women．One of the men was pulled from the wreckage(残骸)early Monday and was believed to be the last body on the train．

　　Rescuers planned to lift the wreckage later in the day to see if any other passengers remained beneath．

　　Transport Ministry official Hiromi Mishima said it was not known what caused the derailment and officials were assessing(估计)the extent of the damage．Railway operator JR East Co．President Mutsutake Otsuka apologized for the accident at a news conference Monday morning and promised to look into the accident．Yamagata police official Yasuhiro Sugiu said there had been high-speed wind warnings for the area．Public broadcaster NHK(日本广播协会)quoted a train conductor as saying a strong wind hit the train just before the accident．Winds in the area were about 48 mph, Kyodo News agency reported．

　　Japan in recent days has suffered from unusually heavy snowfall, and storms have led to the deaths of eight people．But snow did not appear to be a cause in Sunday’s crash．

　　Authorities said they did not know how fast the train was going．Speed was believed to be a cause in an April 25 train wreck that killed 107 people and injured more than 500 others in Amagasaki, western Japan．That accident was Japan’s worst train wreck since 1963．