Traffic congestion, which is expected to increase significantly during the next 20 years, may be ameliorated through the application of a collection of advanced technologies and traffic management concepts called Intelligent Vehicle/Highway Systems (IVHS).
General Motors has pioneered the conceptual and technical development of many IVHS topics. Lately, engineers have begun classifying these developments into four categories: Advanced Driver Information Systems, Advanced Traffic Management Systems, Advanced Vehicle Control Systems, and Commercial Operations.
This paper reviews a number of GM-inspired IVHS concepts for Advanced Driver Information and Vehicle Control Systems. Two GM-affiliated IVHS experimental programs, Pathfinder and TravTek, are also reviewed.
Increased organizational efforts that accelerate the cooperation between public agencies and the private sector will be required to arrive at a consensus strategy for developing, testing, and applying IVHS technologies.