The electronic highway

Abstract

Although high-speed, electrically powered surface and subsurface transportation will help to alleviate future traffic congestion in some localities, a majority of the public will probably continue to prefer the mobility, privacy, and freedom afforded by the automobile. Therefore, some form of automation for individual vehicles appears to be desirable-in fact, necessary- if complete highway chaos is to be avoided. The approach described in this article involves the concept of a dual-mode system, whereby the vehicle (which must be specially equipped) is manually controlled on nonautomated roads and automatically controlled on automated ones.