Ralph Teeter was blinded in an accident at the age of eight, but this mishap did not prevent him from building his own gasoline-powered car at the age of 12 and going on later to earn an engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

During a drive to the university in the 1930s, Teeter realized that few motorists maintained a constant speed on the long stretches of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Relying on the sound of their automobile's engine and the feel of the vibrations, he sensed that drivers tend to move at uneven and inconsistent speeds, a problem that could lead to accidents.

Near the end of World War II, Teeter completed his system of cruise control, called a Speedostat. This device relied on manifold pressure from the exhaust system to control engine speed by arranging a valve to maintain an automatic throttle. This essentially...