After World War II, construction of an interstate freeway system seemed like a concept for the distant future--but it quickly turned to reality, thanks to major investments of money, technology, and agency coordination. In the 1990s, development of an automated highway system or AHS seems like a similarly futuristic vision that is surprisingly close to reality.

In 1991, the United States Congress mandated the Intelligent Transportation Systems program and supported its directive to the Department of Transportation with more than $1.2 billion dollars. The Department of Transportation was instructed to create prototype vehicles and an automated highway system by 1997, and, at the National Automated Highway System Consortium in San Diego in 1997, these developments were demonstrated for the first time. The automated highway system blends vehicles and highway sections that both have specialized electronic equipment. Each "intelligent" automobile has an on-board computer, radar units on the front...