ABSTRACT
Vehicular systems have evolved and advanced from many other fields of technology over the past two decades.
Instrumentation and controls for the various transportation modes (aircraft, marine vessels, rail vehicles,
buses, trucks, and cars) resemble each other more every year. Technology from one mode of transportation
used to be of little interest to practitioners of any other mode. A technology historian might notice similarities
among the functions of airport beacons, lighthouses, railroad signals, and traffic lights, but the specialists in
each field had little to say to each other. This is no longer the case. Computers, microprocessor controls,
electronics, GPS, and advanced networking and radio technologies are being applied in all forms of passenger
and freight transportation, through the air and over water and land. The vehicles are now considered in
context with an entire system, which is increasingly viewed as part of an overall transportation environment
encompassing more than one mode.
