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"It was [H.G. Wells'] adolescent fiction, his imaginative stories, that live forever - and yet are not acknowledged in literature classes as being great literature. So to hell with the academics!"
- Greg Bear

Car Caravan  
  A set of cars that will follow a lead car autonomously.  

Jason signed off the transport and gave the order to mount, taking the lead car himself, with Kerl in the bucket seat beside him. The transparent tops of the cars were shut and the caravan led off up a steep and unmarked valley toward a pass into the mountains...
“Now,” said Jason, turning to his passenger as they topped the pass. “Where to?”
“...North,” he said. “Straight north until we pick up sign.”
Jason nodded and turned the car off in the direction of the canyon. Like obedient mechanical sheep, the cars behind swung through the turn, each in their proper order, and followed him.


(Car Caravan from 'Carry Me Home' by Gordon R. Dickson)

Jason had been guiding the caravan of cars as usual, his hands on the controls, his mind a dozen light years off on the Frontier...
Abruptly, Kerl shot out an arm and skidded the car to a halt. Behind them the rest of the detachment slammed brakes to keep from piling up.

Technovelgy from Carry Me Home, by Gordon R. Dickson.
Published by IF in 1954
Additional resources -

See also Musk Idea Of Cars Talking To Each Other Predicted 70 Years Ago.

Also, the idea of a lead car under human control with a number of other vehicles following autonomously is a DARPA dream.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Carry Me Home
  More Ideas and Technology by Gordon R. Dickson
  Tech news articles related to Carry Me Home
  Tech news articles related to works by Gordon R. Dickson

Car Caravan-related news articles:
  - Leader-Follower Autonomous Vehicle Technology

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Leader-Follower Autonomous Vehicle Technology
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Congress Considers Automatic Emergency Braking, One Hundred Years Too Late
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