The first cars bold enough to drive themselves

Under certain sections of the highway, GM proposed laying an electronic strip. When the car passed over it, the sensors would lock on to the signal and automatically guide the vehicle into its lane. The driver would simply lean back, hands free from the wheel, and watch the miles pass by. Onboard amenities inexplicably included an orange juice dispenser.

proof of concept

By 1958 the idea became reality. It was tested on a plain stretch of highway outside Lincoln, Nebraska. The state road department equipped a 400-foot (121 m) length of road with electric circuits, while engineers from RCA and General Motors brought specially fitted Chevrolets to test it. Observers observed driverless cars driving themselves, reacting to signals buried beneath the pavement.

A few years later, across the Atlantic, the United Kingdom’s Transport and Road Research Laboratory conducted its own experiments. Using a Citroën DS, they laid magnetic cables down a test track and sent the car down at a speed of 80 mph (129 km/h). The wind and weather made no difference; DS expressed his views honestly.

Autonomy rises in the modern era

Fast forward to 1986, German scientist Ernst Dickmanns, as part of his position with the German armed forces, began testing an autonomously driving Mercedes-Benz using computers, cameras and sensors, unlike modern cars. Within a year, it was traveling down the Autobahn at speeds of about 55 mph (89 km/h). This was enough to attract the attention of Daimler-Benz, which helped finance further research.

Several years later, in October 1994, Dickmans gathered his research team at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, where he met with a delegation of high-ranking officials. Two sedans were parked at the corner. They looked simple but were equipped with cameras, sensors and onboard computers. The guests boarded and the vehicles drove to a nearby road. Then, with traffic constantly flowing around them, engineers switched the vehicles into self-driving mode and took their hands off the wheel. The cars maintained their lanes, adjusted their speeds, and followed the road’s gentle curves without driver intervention.