Munching haggis on auto-driver
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FOR MANY years now planes have had automatic pilots and I wonder if we will see the day when road vehicles have automatic drivers! While it might not be considered practicable to automate complex inner city road networks, it might be practicable to automate the trunk road networks.
Possibly this could be done by drivers taking vehicles on manual control to marshalling yards at the approach to the automated trunk road network. Vehicle routeing details would be entered into an on-board computer terminal.
This could communicate with a master centralised computer via radio signals transmitted to cables buried underneath the road surface. Once the vehicle had been entered onto the automatic system, the driver could leave it if he wished.
The computer would control vehicle direction and speed and route, monitoring at all times positions of vehicles on the automatic network. Distances between vehicles would be automatically controlled. As the vehicle neared the completion of its journey it would be guided to a marshalling yard near to the urban road network it was required to enter. A driver could then res..ime manual control of the vehicle for it to finish its journey.
In the event of this becoming a reality, gone would be multiple motorway collisions, problems with speeding and tailgating and obviously there would be a dramatic decrease in road accidents. Also, automatic vehicle operations would be unhindered in fog, no matter how thick.
Possibly as we enter the 21st Century, I will be able to whiz from Glasgow to London with
my car on auto-driver while I sit with my feet up reading Commercial Motor, nibbling a tasty haggis sandwich and maybe accompanied with a wee drappie of The Cratur. I look forward to the day. A. G. McHARG
McHarg, Paterson & Co Glasgow