# Self-Driving cars, Circa 1965? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 18, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-circa-1965/735062 "2015-10-18T22:51:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-circa-1965/735062/1 "2015-10-18T22:51:05Z")
Back when i was a kid, our “Weekly Reader” newspaper (which we read at school) had a story that i remember well. It concerned a experimental car, developed by RCA Labs (Princeton NJ), which would drive itself. i believe it was based on a magnetic strip embedded in the roadway, and ,being the 1960s, was an analog system, with servo motors controlling the steering. I recall that the system worked quite well-obviously it was never commercialized. Am I remembering correctly? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-circa-1965/735062/2 "2015-10-18T23:00:48Z")
[History of the autonomous car](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_autonomous_car), from a quick google: > [@](#): > > In 1953, RCA Labs successfully built a miniature car that was guided and controlled by wires that were laid in a pattern on a laboratory floor. The system sparked the imagination of Leland M. Hancock, traffic engineer in the Nebraska Department of Roads, and of his director, L. N. Ress, state engineer. The decision was made to experiment with the system in actual highway installations. > > In 1958, a full size system was successfully demonstrated by RCA Labs and the State of Nebraska on a 400-foot strip of public highway just outside Lincoln, Neb. A series of experimental detector circuits buried in the pavement were a series of lights along the edge of the road. The detector circuits were able to send impulses to guide the car and determine the presence and velocity of any metallic vehicle on its surface. It was developed in collaboration with General Motors, who paired two standard models with equipment consisting of special radio receivers and audible and visual warning devices that were able to simulate automatic steering, accelerating and brake control. > > It was further demonstrated on 5 June 1960, at RCA Lab’s headquarter in Princeton, New Jersey, where reporters were allowed to “drive” on the cars. Commercialization of the system was expected to happen by 1975.[26][27] It cites to the [_New York Times_ (article paywalled)](http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E06E2DF123DE333A25755C0A9609C946191D6CF) and [_The Press-Courier_ (accessible)](https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vUpeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3WANAAAAIBAJ&pg=6885,3667738&hl=en). ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-circa-1965/735062/3 "2015-10-20T16:42:14Z")
I distinctly remember seeing a video (in the early 70’s?) of the ‘future’, showing a family driving by a traffic control tower on a lone highway, the father pushes the steering wheel forward out of the way…mom pulls a meal out of the glove box, and they all sit back and enjoy the ride. Does this ring a bell to anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-circa-1965/735062/4 "2015-10-20T18:01:05Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > Does this ring a bell to anyone? Curiously, I ran into that video just the other day. [Here it is](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx6keHpeYak). You forgot the sing-a-long with the control tower. Also, the video was _predicting_ the distant 70’s, but was made in 1956. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-circa-1965/735062/5 "2015-10-20T19:26:30Z")
I think my old man was involved with that to-do in Nebraska. He was a professor there and also developed a radio-controlled tractor featured in _“Better Farming”_ Winter 1958 edition. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-circa-1965/735062/6 "2015-10-25T22:41:11Z")
Thanks for the info. We had this technology a long time ago-why wasn’t it adopted? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-circa-1965/735062/7 "2015-10-25T22:53:38Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Thanks for the info. We had this technology a long time ago-why wasn’t it adopted? The Recession of the 70s. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-circa-1965/735062/8 "2015-10-25T22:54:42Z")
we couldn’t even get fuel injection right at the time and you’re wondering why there were no self-driving cars? there’s a huge difference between something working in a canned demo, and millions of those somethings working out there in the real world. I’ve been in assembly plants which have had AGVs (automatically guided vehicles) mostly as parts transporters. they crawl along at 2.5 mph following a stripe of magnetic paint, and are programmed to stop immediately if a possible error state has been encountered.