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Historically, the long development time required to produce a new automobile has meant that the electronics in that vehicle might lag the state-of-the-art by several years. For traditional vehicle electronics, this was certainly an appropriate delay, ensuring through extensive testing and qualification that the quality and reliability of the electronic systems met rigorous standards. However, with the growing consumer-oriented electronics content in today's vehicles, it is becoming more difficult for the automotive manufacturers to meet consumers' expectations with older technology. Couple this with the fast-paced consumer product cycle, typically nine to eighteen and the result is increasing pressure on the vehicle manufacturers from after-market electronics suppliers, who can update their product lines as fast as the component manufacturers can produce new models.

A demonstration program to design, implement and evaluate an in-vehicle navigation and route guidance system with dynamically updated travel time information is being undertaken on a suburban arterial road system in Northeast Illinois. In July, 1991, the Illinois Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Motorola, Inc., and Illinois Universities Transportation Research Consortium agreed to proceed with the design and test phase of the demonstration program. This phase will design the route guidance system demonstration, implement the software design for the Traffic Information Center and conduct a system test. Detailed plans for monitoring and assessing the system's performance will also be prepared. These designs will guide the studies to be performed during the implementation phase of the demonstration program expected to commence in 1993.