I-15 as the first automated freeway

Mr. Alice: Just out of curiosity, what is with those rental trucks and cars parked in the I-15 car pool lanes when they’re not in use. Is this some top-secret mission? Are they having a picnic? — Joe E. Berardini, Miramar

Hey, Joe, get with the program. Where were you when the rest of us were out celebrating the passage of the Intermodal Surface Efficiency Act of 1991? That charged the U.S. Department of Transportation with developing a prototype automated highway. Ever since, they’ve been hard at it, along with Caltrans, General Motors, Lockheed Martin, Bechtel, and a slew of other business and academic types. They call themselves the National Automated Highway System Consortium. An automated highway is a dedicated road on which vehicle steering, speed, and braking are controlled without human intervention by radar, sensors, communications systems, and computers. What we’re seeing now on 1-15 is the tech rehearsal for a big public fiesta scheduled for August 7 through 10. In the HOV lanes and at Miramar Community College, the NAHSC will demo the progress they’ve made so far and showcase the technology. By 2002 they hope to have a prototype in place. Soon after, we’ll be able to drive onto an automated highway, then read the paper, scrutinize maps, fix our hair or make-up in the rear-view, dial cell phones, eat breakfast — all the things we do now without benefit of crash-avoidance technology. The fender bender and the speeding ticket will be relics of the past.