Smart Cars and Automated Highways

This article illustrates the development and use of intelligent vehicles and automated highways to solve the increasing traffic problem. Small networks of computers installed in vehicles and along selected roadways could closely coordinate vehicles and harmonize traffic flow, maximizing highway capacity and passenger safety. A driver electing to use such an automated highway might first pass through a validation lane, similar to today's high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) or carpooling lanes. The system would then determine if the car will function correctly in an automated mode, establish its destination, and deduct any tolls from the driver's credit account. The article also highlights that basic to the automated-highway schemes are computer simulations to indicate that such systems may be the least expensive way to increase highway throughput. The California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) Program at the University of California has developed the technology whereby magnets buried at intervals in the roadbed would be sensed by magnetometers in vehicles, providing a way to monitor their location and velocity.