1. A brief history of the autonomous vehicle

The autonomous vehicle is not a recent concept. In 1977, a robotics laboratory in Tsukuba (Japan) proposed a prototype vehicle with automated driving on a dedicated circuit. This was followed in 1986 by the ALV (Autonomous Land Vehicle) developed at Carnegie Mellon, as well as other prototypes within the framework of major projects such as Promotheus (1987) in Europe (see the Websites section of For more information) or, in the United States, the National Automated Highway System Consortium (NAHSC) program, the latter crowned by an emblematic demonstration in San Diego in 1997