Automated cars on automated highways is not a new idea thought up in the last two decades or so.
It’s actually something people have considered probably ever motorways became common, and that’s what General Motors was pushing its Firebird I, II and III concepts of the mid 1950s as.
The Firebird II featured overt futuristic-rocket-like styling but room for four – it was seen as the family car of tomorrow imagined in 1956 (both were gas turbine-powered). It really was specified at the time that the car is designed with automated driving in mind – it was obviously impossible to put into practice with mid-50s technology.
Then in 1958 GM launched the Firebird III, also a rocket-like styled vehicle, but this time with only two seats. It was slightly more extreme than the II and featured even more daring styling.
GM obviously wanted to popularize the vehicle, even if it was so far removed from what it was actually building at the time, so it made an official video to boost its image as a promoter of technology and innovation of that age.
Check it out right after the jump!
via Silodrome