Driving Without Drivers?

Near the Princeton laboratory of Radio Corp. of America flows the New Jersey Turnpike, like a river of roaring chromium. It is carefully engineered, free of intersections, obstructions or distractions. It should be supersafe--but it is not. Ever since the turnpike was opened, it has been the scene of some spectacular crashes. Its very perfection can hypnotize drivers. Some of them speed half-conscious at 60 m.p.h., drifting dreamily off the gentle curves, or smashing into cars that have slowed down a little.

In his Princeton laboratory Dr. Vladimir K. Zworykin, R.C.A.'s great electronics inventor, who pioneered the TV tube, worried about this phenomenon. What U.S. driving needs, he concluded, is some masterful device to take it away from the drivers. After years of work, Dr. Zworykin announced last week that he had designed an electronic system to do just that.

In Zworykin's automatic highway, each traffic lane has a wire cable buried in the paving down its middle. Carrying an alternating current, it will serve as a guide, like the rails of a railroad. Electronic devices on each car feel for the buried cable and make the power steering system keep the car centerd over it.

Moving Tails. Besides rails, a railroad needs block signals to warn of obstructions ahead. At 20-ft. intervals along Zworykin's cable are small transmitters that broadcast signals when a mass of metal (i.e., an automobile) has passed over them. This makes each moving car drag after it a moving "tail" of signals. When the car behind it gets too close, the block signals (acting on engine and brakes) slow it down in time to avoid a smash. The transmitters allow for the speed of both the leading and the following car. If the car ahead stops completely, its electronic tail reaches far behind to ward off oncoming cars. If the car behind is moving rapidly, it begins to slow down as soon as it treads on a tail.

For passing, Dr. Zworykin provides diagonal cables that lead from one lane to another. When a fast car treads on the tail of a slower car, one of the diagonals shunts it to the left-hand lane. Another shunts it back again when it is safely past. So far, Dr. Zworykin's system has been tried only with model cars on a simulated highway in his laboratory. The cars do not collide, and one passes the other nicely.

Zworykin admits that it will be a long time before U.S. superhighways are made automatic, but he sees no insurmountable obstacles. First stage would be simple guiding cables, which would have considerable value when visibility is poor. Next would come the buried transmitters to warn of obstacles on the road. These, thinks Zworykin. will probably have to wait until transistors are available in quantity; vacuum tubes in the transmitters would demand too much current. Final stage would be a complete system to deliver driverless vehicles at their destinations unguided by human hands.

Deadly Faith. Apprehensive critics point out that Zworykin may be increasing the very hazard that he is trying to diminish. Drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike become hypnotized because the beautiful highway demands too little from them to keep them alert. If the highway itself does their driving for them, they may fall even deeper into drivers' coma. The cars will speed along the Zworykin highway in a wide and orderly stream, passing and repassing like strands in a braided belt. The drivers will have nothing to do; they can sleep or play cards or stare at the flowing road. Then some irregularity--an electronic failure or a blown front tire--pokes a mischievous finger into the smooth system. The dreaming drivers awake only when their cars are already piling in great, mangled heaps.

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