Platooning: The First Step to an Autonomous Fleet

Platooning, more formally known as driver assistive truck platooning, or DATP, could be the low-hanging fruit in taking driving to the next level.

Walter Sullivan, head of Elektrobit Automotive’s newly established Silicon Valley Innovation Lab, notes that platooning will be one of the first implementations of automated truck driving, due to the promise of greater fuel economy.

Pointing out that OEMs are happy to eke out a 3% reduction in fuel each model year, “When a vehicle is driving 200,000 miles a year, if you can save 10% on fuel, that’s massive,” he says.

Peloton Technologies has demonstrated just that with a study headed  by Auburn University’s GPS and Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory, finding that the lead truck gained as much as a 5% improvement in fuel economy, while the trailing truck got up to 10% improvement.

Peloton started with two-truck platooning because it’s simpler technically, according to CEO Josh Switkes but there’s an additional reason. “We want to make sure the public doesn’t complain about trucks in their way getting on and off the highway,” he says.

That’s a concern brought up by many that will have to be eventually addressed: If a 10-truck platoon is passing an exit ramp, how will single vehicles manoeuver through it to get to the exit?

There’s plenty more scepticism.

The post Platooning: The First Step to an Autonomous Fleet appeared first on Fleet Management Weekly.

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