Abstract
Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) have arisen only within the last decade of this first century of the automobile. However, they have the potential to dramatically influence the future character of the automobile and the automotive industry by harnessing them to the rapidly advancing computer and telecommunications industries. Vehicle / highway automation, in particular, has such a strong potential to enhance the value of the vehicle to the customer that it could become the cornerstone for the automotive industrys prosperity in its second century.