Automation has been applied in various ways in the transportation industries. Applications include airline reservation systems, automatic pilots in aircraft and locomotives, and urban mass-transit systems. The airlines use computerized reservation systems to continuously monitor the status of all flights. With these systems, ticket agents at widely dispersed locations can obtain information about the availability of seats on any flight in a matter of seconds. The reservation systems compare requests for space with the status of each flight, grant space when available, and automatically update the reservation status files. Passengers can even receive their seat assignments well in advance of ...(100 of 11047 words)