THE AUTOMATED HIGHWAY: CONCEPTS FOR DEVELOPMENT

A full-scale, public demonstration of an automated highway system (AHS) will be held near San Diego late next summer. The demonstration will contain applications of technologies that will be building blocks for a full prototype AHS by year 2002. Automated highways hold out the promise of greater safety and increased capacity without the need to acquire right-of-way and pour vast quantities of additional concrete. The National Automated Highway System Consortium (NAHSC) is currently developing and evaluating alternative concepts. In them, the intelligence distributions range from autonomous, in which all is in the vehicle, to infrastructure assisted, in which much is in the infrastructure, and varying levels in between. This article describes several approaches.