1. Ensure Chrome is not running
2. Run the test case that's reproduced below [1]
3. Browser starts up, doesn't go to base url, and does nothing besides. And this error
output is received:

    [junit] Testcase: exampleTest took 20.508 sec
    [junit]     Caused an ERROR
    [junit] Could not start a new session. Possible causes are invalid address of the
remote server or browser start-up failure.
    [junit] Build info: version: '2.25.0', revision: '17482', time: '2012-07-18 22:18:01'
    [junit] System info: os.name: 'Mac OS X', os.arch: 'x86_64', os.version: '10.7.4',
java.version: '1.6.0_33'
    [junit] Driver info: driver.version: ChromeDriver
    [junit] org.openqa.selenium.remote.UnreachableBrowserException: Could not start
a new session. Possible causes are invalid address of the remote server or browser
start-up failure.
    [junit] Build info: version: '2.25.0', revision: '17482', time: '2012-07-18 22:18:01'
    [junit] System info: os.name: 'Mac OS X', os.arch: 'x86_64', os.version: '10.7.4',
java.version: '1.6.0_33'
    [junit] Driver info: driver.version: ChromeDriver
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:493)
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.startSession(RemoteWebDriver.java:182)
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:110)
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:114)
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver.<init>(ChromeDriver.java:165)
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver.<init>(ChromeDriver.java:107)
    [junit]     at org.denevell.foreignphrases.tests.UITestsRegister.setUp(UITestsRegister.java:17)
    [junit] Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: Timed out waiting for
driver server to start.
    [junit] Build info: version: '2.25.0', revision: '17482', time: '2012-07-18 22:18:01'
    [junit] System info: os.name: 'Mac OS X', os.arch: 'x86_64', os.version: '10.7.4',
java.version: '1.6.0_33'
    [junit] Driver info: driver.version: ChromeDriver
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.remote.service.DriverService.start(DriverService.java:166)
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.remote.service.DriverCommandExecutor.execute(DriverCommandExecutor.java:62)
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:472)
    [junit] Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.net.UrlChecker$TimeoutException: Timed out
waiting for [http://localhost:44649/status] to be available after 20003 ms
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.net.UrlChecker.waitUntilAvailable(UrlChecker.java:104)
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.remote.service.DriverService.start(DriverService.java:164)
    [junit] Caused by: com.google.common.util.concurrent.UncheckedTimeoutException:
java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException
    [junit]     at com.google.common.util.concurrent.SimpleTimeLimiter.callWithTimeout(SimpleTimeLimiter.java:143)
    [junit]     at org.openqa.selenium.net.UrlChecker.waitUntilAvailable(UrlChecker.java:79)
    [junit] Caused by: java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException
    [junit]     at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerGet(FutureTask.java:228)
    [junit]     at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:91)
    [junit]     at com.google.common.util.concurrent.SimpleTimeLimiter.callWithTimeout(SimpleTimeLimiter.java:130)

Selenium version: 2.25.0
OS: OS X
Browser: Chrome 
Browser version: 21.0.1180.75

Notes
-----

This test works fine with the FirefoxDriver.

[1] Here's the test case I am using:

package org.sample.tests;

import org.junit.After;
import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverBackedSelenium;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import com.thoughtworks.selenium.SeleneseTestBase;

public class UITestsRegister extends SeleneseTestBase {
    @Before
    public void setUp() throws Exception {
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google
Chrome");

        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        String baseUrl = "http://www.duckduckgo.com";
        selenium = new WebDriverBackedSelenium(driver, baseUrl);
    }

    @After
    public void tearDown() throws Exception {
        selenium.stop();
    }

    @Test
    public void exampleTest() throws Exception {
        selenium.open("/");
    }

}