The congressionally mandated demonstration featured "hands free" vehicle automation on a section of I-15. Other "scenarios" showcased were adaptive cruise control, collision warning, obstacle avoidance, lane departure warning, and lateral and longitudinal control.
Hosted by the National Automated Highway Consortium (NAHSC), Troy, Mich., the event was truly interactive, offering attendees the opportunity to experience first-hand the sensation of riding in a vehicle that drives itself; speeds up, slows down, and changes lanes automatically.
In the years since 1939, when the automated highway concept was presented to the public in General Motors' "Futurama" exhibit at the New York World's Fair, technology has advanced dramatically in most fields and is now making inroads into our highway system as states and cities make greater use of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Automobiles have become progressively more electronic and automated in the past 20 years, with everything seemingly being controlled by a computer chip.
Safety, in addition to reduced traffic congestion and improved fuel efficiency, was trumpeted as a major benefit of AHS. "We've done a good job building better roads," said Chuck Thorpe of Carnegie Mellon University. "But we haven't done so good of a job building better people." Thorpe's first experience with vehicle safety improvements came after his father, who was an emergency room doctor in the early 1960s, treated a woman who had been thrown through the windshield of a car. The next day his dad went out and bought seat belts.
The demo vehicles were guided in several ways. Most used a combination of sensing devices combined with video technology. Magnets were inserted into the roadway to guide some vehicles while others used special traffic marking tape as a reference.
Magnets were available as souvenirs for media types. However, warnings were issued to keep them away from any electronic equipment; too late I was told for one cellular phone user.
On whole the demonstration was educational and a heck of a lot of fun. However, there were glitches. While the vehicles I rode in operated flawlessly, one high-tech device, the air conditioner in a trailer, which was packed with media for a press conference, failed miserably in the 100 deg heat.
The next goal of the consortium--aside from equipping its trailers with larger air conditioners-- is to determine which of the components demonstrated will be used to build a prototype AHS.
