Hands-Free Automated Highway Debuts in San Diego Demonstration

A demonstration of a robot road of the future in which cars drive themselves down automated highways ended this week in San Diego. If the system is implemented on the nation's freeways, it could double the lane capacity of roads, dramatically reduce accidents, cut vehicle emissions and be built at a fraction of the cost of adding new lanes.

If there is competition between highway and public transit interests, the technology of the National Automated Highway System Consortium (NAHSC) could tilt the balance in favor of highways as a preferred mode of transportation.

In one part of the demonstration, a Houston Metro bus driver sat in the driver's seat of his bus but left all the driving to a matchbook-sized video camera mounted on the front windshield, radar sensors on the front and sides and a desktop-sized computer stored behind him. Drivers in four vehicles running only a few feet from the Houston Metro bus at 45 miles per hour did the same.

Deployment Is Not Far Away

The test this week took place on a 7.6-mile stretch of Interstate 15. Under current plans of both the NAHSC and the federal government, the same technology could start to be deployed nationally by 2002. Some of the options, like cruise control that slows down and speeds up automatically with the car ahead, already are available on some Japanese cars and are expected in the United States in a few years.

The demonstration bus - has a camera that reads visual clues, like lane markers or a patch of oil in the center of a roadway, but allows the driver to resume control at the tap of a brake or a touch of a steering wheel.

Created by Congress as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 to coordinate research research in the field, the NAHSC is a seven-year, $200 million public-private effort, including researchers from General Motors, Carnegie-Mellon University and the California and United States Department of Transportation. The demonstration was intended to show congressmen and corporate executives that the project is worth spending more money on research and development.

Most of the technology used during the demonstration already exists, including the $150 video camera and the common refrigerator-style ceramic magnets embedded in the roadway to guide vehicles. It cost another $15,000 to outfit the Houston Metro test bus, but engineers say mass production could bring the cost down to $500 per vehicle.

More than a convenience for drivers, the government estimates human error contributes to 90 percent of the 10.7 million annual automobile accidents and one-third of the 40,000 fatalities. The safety-of the technology would raise many questions about insurance coverage that could alter premiums paid by drivers. In addition, drivers will need time to get accustomed to the system.

Many public transit advocates have argued that expanding road capacity only leads to more driving. But NAHSC engineers say the increased road capacity would come without more roadbuilding. The magnetic-based system developed by California Path, a joint project of the University of California at Berkeley, the California Department of Transportation and General Motors, is intended to double or triple lane capacity by allowing cars to travel at high speeds in radio-linked, magnet-guided convoys as little as 12 feet apart.

The Technology Is Cost-Effective

The system uses digital radio signals transmitted 50 times a second from the car at the head of a line and each one behind it can guide braking, steering and other functions. It can work in all weather conditions and would cost about $10,000 per lane-mile, compared to $1 million to $100 million to build a new lane-mile in many urban areas.

Transportation officials from Houston and several areas of southern California are competing with one another to be the first place where the technology is used in real-life applications. Houston Metro considers automated highways a good place for a city too sprawling for an efficient rail system. Cars and buses could merge into automated lanes on the Katy Freeway then splinter off at exits leading to their destinations. When the NAHSC completes its research and development in five years, a report is supposed to explain how and where the government could implement the technology. Afterward, the U.S. Transportation Department will pick a city for a prototype. For more information, call the NAHSC's Celeste Speier at (248) 816-3400.