Due to increasing attention being given by the press in recent years to the new developments towards "intelligent" vehicles communicating with "intelligent" roads and motorways, it could be questioned how many of these new concepts would be included in the contents of automotive electronics at the turn of the century. The likely answer is that actual microelectronics deployment inside the car will occur as a result of a single evolutionary trend, which so far has only marginally involved the driver simply as a user, with no control over the internal systems operation; however as soon as the technology can provide the capability to more extensively interact with the vehicle and its immediate surroundings, it will also be possible to perform conventional driving functions in new ways as well as to actually implement new "intelligent" functions, such as those under study within the PROMETHEUS project.
Abstract