"Look Ma, No Hands."

Nancy Finton

You've tucked your new driver's license into your wallet and hit the open road. Behind the wheel, you skim a magazine and munch potato chips. You glance up as your car slows down to avoid a tractor-trailer up ahead, then go back to reading while your car automatically changes lanes and leaves the other driver in the dust. Sound like an episode of The Jetsons? Think again. The future of driving is already here, with "rad" technologies that let cars control their own speeds and directions—without you lifting a finger or a foot.

Get ready for automated highways, systems that rely on a battery of high-tech wizardry. Satellites and magnets will help navigate your car; sensors will alert your car to every vehicle ahead of it; and car computers will "talk" to one another. Your car's central computer will process all this information, and instruct your car just what to do.

Experts predict it won't be long before these technologies hit the road. An automated bus system could be in place within five years, says engineer Richard Bishop, who has managed the U.S. government program on automated highways. He predicts that major highways will be automated for passenger cars by the year 2010.

MAGNETS AND VIDEOS

What's car's first lesson in "self control"? Staying on the road! One system uses magnets to keep cars in line. This method proved itself last summer, as crowds gawked at driverless cars cruising down a 15-mile strip of southern California highway.

A different strategy, already tested, employs a video camera mounted beside a car's rear-view mirror. The video camera examines the road ahead, and feeds what it sees into the car's computer. How does the system work? "To direct the car's steering, the computer uses the same clues you or I would," says Bishop. It looks for lines painted on the road, the boundary between pavement and dirt, or the oil spot running down the center of the lane.

The magnetic system is effective because magnetic road markers are so strong they guide and control your car even when the highway is buried in snow. Bishop explains. The video method is also effective for roads without magnets. "Future automated systems may blend the best of several technologies," Bishop says.

ROAD RADAR

Both magnetic and video-controlled highways will make the most of radar, a system planes and ships use to locate objects through pulsing high-frequency (rapid) radio waves. The pulses are reflected back by anything they strike. So imagine you're looking for a can of soda in the back seat to wash down those potato chips. Up ahead a broken-down jalopy creeps slower than a snail. Your car's radar system transmits radio waves that bounce off the jalopy back to your car. The faster the signals rebound, the closer the other vehicle is to your car. If you edge too close to the jalopy, the radar system instantly instructs your car to slow down. This system, called adaptive cruise control, is already in use in Japan. "Expect it on U.S. cars within a couple of years," Bishop says.

Next, your radar scans other lanes to see if and when there's room to pass. What if the highway is clogged with rush-hour traffic? No problem—not only will automated cars do the work, they'll do it politely! Car computers will relay information to each other—again, through radio signals fed into the computers. For example, your car might dispatch the message: "Please open up a spot," Bishop explains. The car to your left would automatically slow down enough to let you change lanes. Say goodbye to road rage!

SAVING LIVES—AND ENERGY

When scientists design automated systems, they hope to save lives. Ninety percent of all accidents are caused by human error, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Computer car-control should eliminate those crashes. But what about computer crashes? "Designers are careful to incorporate back-up systems to ensure safety," says Bishop.

Automated highways will also save energy. How? Ever watch cars or bicycles race? If so, you've seen racers save energy by drafting, or sticking close to the vehicle in front of them. The racer in front has to battle air resistance—the force of air pushing back against the vehicle. As that vehicle pushes through air, it slices the air stream in two, leaving a calm spot in the middle. The "freeloader" in back sticks to the calm spot for an easier ride.

With automated highways, all cars will be programmed to travel at the same speed, a short distance apart. So cars will save energy by "drafting" on each other. Equal speeds, and computers' quick reaction times, may also mean fewer traffic jams—and fewer fuel-guzzling stops and starts.

"Once the fully automated system is in place, drivers won't be paying attention," says Bishop. "That means the system has to be able to deal effectively with anything that comes up." But control freaks can relax. Highways will have non-automated lanes, and drivers will be able to "hold the reins" on regular side roads.

What do future drivers of America think of automated highways? "There goes all the fun out of driving," says Steve Cohen, 15, of Canton, Ohio. Not so, says Cynthia Mermia, 15, of San Antonio, Texas. "I'll study for a test or do my homework while driving. But I'll still keep an eye on the road."

From Science World, March 9, 1998.