Nation's First Automated Highway System Demonstration Launched in San Diego

07/02/96

Possibly you have read it in one of the car enthusiast publications or have seen it in the "thought" magazines: they're discussing plans to build a "smart" highway. A highway that you traverse in your automobile with the car driving itself and you reading the morning want ads. Well it's here . . . the first demonstration of an automated highway system took place today in San Diego, California. A consortium of companies and government agencies have worked for years to develop the system. They blocked off a section of California interstate 15 and held ceremonies to explain how the program works. The automated highway system, technology that enables cars to drive themselves, is a visionary concept that promises to revolutionize transportation as we know it today.

The ceremony signified the beginning of work for the National Automated Highway System Consortium (NAHSC) Demonstration '97, where the technical feasibility of driver-assisted technologies will be demonstrated on a 7.6 mile stretch of the San Diego freeway in August 1997. The first magnetic markers needed for the demonstration were installed in the pavement today. The magnets, spaced every meter, will work in concert with a traffic management center, in-vehicle devices, and other field equipment to keep AHS-equipped vehicles in-lane, properly spaced, and guided toward their destination while sensing and avoiding obstacles.

Ed Mertz, General Manager of General Motors' Buick division noted that automated highway systems will spark development of a whole new class of vehicles in the quest to solve traffic congestion problems.

Advanced transportation technologies will assist in reducing driver errors, the cause of 90% of traffic accidents. In some cases a vehicle will enter a dedicated automated lane and the automated system will assume control of the car including steering, braking and throttle.

A unique public partnership between the NAHSC and the U.S. Department of Transportation has been formed to make the automated highway concept a reality. Participants are: Bechtel, Corp, Caltrans, Hughes, General Motors, Carnegie Mellon University, Delco Electronics, and Lockheed Martin.

Bill Maloney -- The Auto Channel