So Princeton engineering baby Einsteins have been selected as semi-finalists in the DARPA engineering competition for a car that can drive itself along city streets. And they might be up for fabulous prizes, like $2 million for 1st place. And okay, so maybe they did it on what is considered (in the self-driving car world?) to be chump change--a mere $75,000--while other teams have spent more than a million. Great. Fabulous. Well done them.

But don't any of them realize that they are wasting their time in the world of glorified battle bots when there is a real car industry out there that pays real money? Lexus keeps bragging about this fabulous car that parallel parks itself. Doesn't that mean they would go gaga for a car that can drive itself?

Kids, the right thing to do here is drop the competition, call the Toyota Company, and pay for your four-year tuition.