88 years ago, Harvard paved the way for autonomous vehicles

On August 16, 1937, Harvard University launched the first university program dedicated to traffic engineering.

At the time, no one imagined cars capable of driving themselves, but at Harvard, a handful of bright minds envisioned the traffic of the 21st century. Their initiative laid the groundwork for a scientific approach that, nearly a century later, directly feeds into the autonomous vehicle revolution.

In the 1930s, American cities were saturated. Automobiles were multiplying, accidents were increasing, and traffic signals were still in their infancy. Harvard, in partnership with the Automotive Safety Foundation and the AAA, decided to train engineers capable of analyzing traffic flows, optimizing intersections, coordinating traffic lights, and planning safer road networks.

How to improve traffic flow?

This first generation of specialists did not envision radars or onboard sensors, but they created the intellectual tools that would enable their emergence: measuring, modeling, predicting. Thanks to them, cities saw the introduction of reasoned speed limits, synchronized traffic lights, and the first comprehensive traffic plans.

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Today, traffic engineering has become an ultra-technological field, blending computing, electronics, and artificial intelligence. Autonomous vehicles rely on data from intelligent road infrastructures, which are themselves designed according to principles established as early as 1937. The algorithms that drive driverless cars merely automate what Harvard engineers began doing by hand: understanding traffic to make it smooth and safe.

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