European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 30, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                High tech traffic with a human touch by John h. Cushman or. New York times predicting a doubling of traffic in the next three decades Federal Highway officials in the United states Are promoting the notion of computerizing and automating both private vehicles and the highways themselves. In the latest move to assist researchers transportation Secretary Samuel k. Skinner announced an $8 million project to equip 100 cars in Orlando fla., with computerized displays that will receive instantaneous traffic updates and Detour instructions irom a traffic management Center. In a report to Congress the department of transportation called for a National research program to Foster the new technologies. At the same time an increase in Federal research was endorsed in a major policy paper issued by the White House. Neither the report nor the policy statement estimated the Cost but recent studies by Federal state and Industry specialists have found that tens of billions of dollars will have to be spent to stave off a paralysis on the nation s highways. Researchers Are focusing on three Broad technologies computerized dashboard maps to track the location of vehicles Roadside sensors and signals to manage the flow of traffic and sophisticated steering and Speed controls that might someday even let cars drive themselves on specially instrumented highways. Describing the Orlando project to the american automobile association in los Angeles Skinner said he looked Forward to new devices that would give Quot the car and the Highway certain almost human characteristics to lift some of the Load off the  Quot this array of advanced electronics and communications technology will contribute a great Deal toward reducing vehicle delay increasing Highway capacity and improving Highway safety Quot the Secretary said. The project is being sponsored by the automobile association along with general motors corp., state and local governments and the department of transportation. Quot it s not a question of whether it is going to happen Quot said Mark r. Norman director of policy development for the Highway users federation a lobbying organization. Quot the real question is How fast it is going to happen and How Well Are we going to do  California s transportation Agency a leading Backer of the new research is already beginning tests of a project similar to the Orlando project. The California project called Pathfinder provides traffic advice to 28 cars operating on a 12-mile stretch of freeway and several parallel arteries in the corridor Between Santa Monica and los Angeles. The project costs $40 million to install such a system throughout los Angeles with its 4,750 Miles of freeway lanes could Cost $2 billion. The Orlando Experiment improves on the California project using nearly four times As Many vehicles and providing a broader Range of information on better displays covering an entire metropolitan area. The displays will suggest the Best route to take to destinations selected by the Drivers and will update the information quickly in response to accidents or traffic congestion. It is expected to go into operation in january 1992, and will be evaluated for a year. John r. Wallace director of electronic systems research at Ford motor co., said the appearance of the new technology in cars would lag behind the installation of computerized traffic control systems like Road signs whose messages vary with traffic conditions. But in the next five years or so he said luxury rental cars will have computerized maps to help Drivers find their Way around unfamiliar streets. How fast the expensive systems catch on depends More on Consumers enthusiasm than anything else he said. Wallace said researchers had yet to resolve major obstacles to automotive equipment not All of them technological. Quot we Don t want to have people blowing into people because they Are looking Down at their navigation systems Quot he said. Quot but there could be very simple displays an Arrow that would come on very simple it = v a ,. To xxx 4 to \ Mem amp it morn. A Iii Iirilli  j a car with a a smart built in Road map by combining a Quot Speed sensor Quot a Gas rate sensor a compact disk drive and computer technology Honda has developed a navigation system that can display a cards location on a dashboard mounted screen. To determine distance a Speed sensor measures the rotation of the transmission drive gear. A screen in the dashboard shows where the car is and the route it has travelled. The Driver can adjust the maps size. An inertial navigation unit calculates movement using data from the Speed sensor and the Gas rate sensor. This information and the appropriate map which is stored on 12-centimeter compact disks Are processed and sent to the screen. Source Honda motor a Gas rate sensor acts As a Gyroscope for the system. It contains two heated wires helium Gas and a thermostat. When the car is moving straight the helium is distributed symmetrically and the wires have the same temperature. When the car turns to the left however the helium shifts to the right Cooling the right wire. The temperature changes Are translated into electronic data which is used to locate the car on the map. Xxx .5 the pm electronic navigation system can map out the Best Ryffe fora Driver from starting Point to destination. Alphanumeric or even voice systems. The car will in its very Flat Boneless voice Tell you to turn left at the next  equipping cars with devices that will actually help control the vehicle s movements presents far More difficult Legal problems he said. For that reason he added the ultimate Quot smart Quot car Quot is the subject of incredible paranoia inside the  for example while cruise control mechanisms that maintain a cards constant Speed could easily be adapted to prevent tailgating Auto makers believe that installing such devices would leave them open to lawsuits in the event of collisions. Quot All these things have tremendous amounts of human engineering problems and a lot of Legal implications Quot he said. Quot right now my opinion is that we could not put these things on the  still the automakers strongly support continued research in the area partly because the technology is meant to permit continued increases in automobile Btij res re 91 to Ujj sick Foi working a shift on an Auto Assembly they just keep working on the line is More than nuts and bolts Here the Chrysler Mitsubishi Plant in Bloomington Iii not by Jan a. Zverina United press International once a month Jim Rucker manager of general motors  Reatta Craft Centre trades his Necktie and pen for a sweatshirt and pneumatic screwdriver and helps build bricks. The usually High Quality Levels at the Lansing mich., Plant were jeopardized recently when Rucker was joined by a journalist a who is better at assembling words than cars. In this Case it was Reatta coupes and convertibles that Cost As much As $37,000 apiece. It All began As an offer from pm s Public relations staff to watch Rucker help assemble regattas at the Craft Centre which is operated less like an Assembly line and More along the Quot work station Quot concept found in swedish Auto plants. There workers done to just tighten a Bolt or two on a moving car As on most Auto Assembly lines. Automatically guided vehicles avs move regattas into separate Bays where workers perform a series of installations and adjustments. Then they summon the a and thus More car sales. Eth a handful of limited demonstrations already in press experts say the technology is in hand for impute sized Roadside signals to smooth the flow of lie and identification devices to automatically charge so that traffic need not slow Down at Bridges and less. Lore Complex systems Are years away from being july installed. Quot you la see Little Steps before you see Steps Quot said Robert d. Ervin head of engineering Larch at the University of Michigan a transportation search Institute in Ann Arbor e predicted that the earliest systems would be red toward the needs of businesses that have the t to gain financially by avoiding traffic delays Tate and local governments Are eager to expand h systems especially around big cities where traffic Gest Ion is most severe. K study by the Texas transportation Institute has id that congestion costs los Angeles motorists $8 not billion a year in delays and that the Cost of congestion in 11 other cities including new York exceeds $1 billion a year. Estimates published in technical reviews say the installation of computerized traffic signal controls in los Angeles which has one of the most advanced systems in the nation has led to reductions of 13.2 percent in travel time 12.5 percent in fuel consumption and 10 percent in pollution. With the nations Highway traffic expected to double Over the next 30 years the increasing use of such technologies seems inevitable. Proponents of aggressive research on smart cars and roads Point to major projects already being conducted by consortium in Japan and Europe and say that if the United states does not follow suit it will end up buying the technology from overseas. The Highway users federation a Washington lobbying group has called for devoting $100 million a year for 10 years to such research. The Bush administration has requested $13 million for such purposes in the fiscal year 1991, which begins oct. 1 mobility 2000, a group of government Industry and academic experts has published staggering estimates of the costs involved in a full commitment to smart roads and vehicles. A nationwide system of traffic management devices could Cost $18 billion to build and $4 billion a year to operate and maintain the group said. About $1 billion should be spent on research and development of Driver information aids such As computerized maps. And $2.5 billion would be spent on vehicle control devices. But advocates say the rewards would be Well Worth the Price. Quot a doubling or a tripling of Lane capacity and a dramatic increase in safety is Well within reach of the technology a mobility 2000 said in a report last month. Such technology the report added Quot offers the Only Hope of really solving transportation problems instead of merely managing worsening conditions Over  Nerming at Yak Jan to move the car to the next Bay. Instead of just watching Rucker work pm allowed his writer to do something both it and the United Auto workers Union have frowned upon previously a to actually work a full shift doing a Job selected by a Union official. In this Case the shift began at 6 . The Job was in raft station six a three Bay area known As weatherstripping and inner door build. There one worker on each Side of a Reatta glues squeezes and hammers into place the door and window weatherstripping before checking for a proper Eal against the Side Glass. The procedure for convertibles involves different parts and is More complicated. Over a dozen types of screws nuts shims and plugs ire installed in the inner door using five different tools o secure the Sid View Mirror two speakers outside rim and window Channel rubber. The electric window is adjusted for proper operation ind the speakers and Mirror connected before a plastic inner shield and foam rubber sound deadened Are added. Page 14 a a a the stars and stripes wednesday May 30,1990 the entire process must be done in 26 minutes or less the time allotted in All trim and Chassis Bays. Workers always keep an Eye on a series of red yellow and Green lights that count Down the remaining time left per Cycle. Quot they just keep coming at a Quot said Lee Crabtree As he readied another Batch of parts to prepare for the next group of 14 cars he will work on before his Day is done. Just then another worker known As Quot the reverend began chanting Quot Over Cycle Over Cycle Quot a meaning the last red Light was about to go out at the next station. Crabtree is a soft spoken Veteran Auto worker who spent 23 of his 45 years As a press operator for pm before coming to the Reatta Plant when it opened in late 1987. He was also a Mode of patience As he allowed me to interrupt his routine which involves a deft hand near precision timing and just the right touch with a Hammer and Dolly to make the weatherstrip Seal properly. Also Well timed is the card game that unfolds each morning on a nearby picnic table once the 15-minute break begins. Workers assembled there suck Down diet cokes and take Long drags on their cigarettes before the warning Bell sounds. By the 10th Reatta or so a and after wrestling with four convertible models a both Rucker and i were almost Able to do the jobs ourselves. We had nearly mastered the glue gun without getting too much Black goo All Over the roof. We came close to remembering All the parts although we still Drew Blanks when trying to remember the exact sequence. This writer used to meeting tight Story deadlines needed an extra 45 seconds to finish up prompting another Good natured Quot Over Cycle Quot chant. And Rucker has Learned that the chronically sore fingertips of workers in Craft station six might be alleviated by using surgeon s gloves. Crabtree does not seem too concerned about Job Security or the fact that the Craft Centre is running at Only 38 percent of its capacity because Reatta sales never reached the company s intended sales goals. Word is the Plant which now builds 42 regattas a Day with about 600 workers in stamping welding and Assembly will soon be building a second vehicle As part of pm s goal to fully utilize All its . Assembly plants by 1992. Quot i be got 23 years in with this company Quot Crabtree said As he lit another cigarette. Quot by the time i be got 30 Init la Only be 51.&Quot nearly All the Reatta workers have already Felt the sting of a Layoff when pm closed its Axle and forging Plant on that site in 1982, three years before announcing plans to open the Craft Centre. Crabtree was not shy about his salary of $27,000 a year. But he got a Wistful look in his face As he watched a finished gleaming White Reatta convertible drive by with a freshly glued on sticker that read nearly $37,000. Quot i sure would like to get me one of those one Day Quot he said. The stars and stripes a a a Page 15