Scania leads European vehicle platooning research project

Scania will take the lead role in a three-year European research project to develop a system for implementing truck platooning on roads, which it is believed can significantly contribute towards reducing the carbon footprint of trucks. Through the European Companion research project, the partners will identify means of implementing the platooning concept in practice in daily transport operations. The project also includes Volkswagen Group Research, Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology, Oldenburger
December 12, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
570 Scania will take the lead role in a three-year European research project to develop a system for implementing truck platooning on roads, which it is believed can significantly contribute towards reducing the carbon footprint of trucks.

Through the European Companion research project, the partners will identify means of implementing the platooning concept in practice in daily transport operations. The project also includes 994 Volkswagen Group Research, Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology, Oldenburger Institut für Informatik, Germany, IDIADA Automotive Technology, Spain, Science Corporation, Netherlands and the Spanish haulage company Transportes Cerezuela.

Depending on the transport task, haulage companies will be able to identify the most favourable route with regard to fuel consumption. Through an integrated system, drivers will receive information on where they can join and leave platoons which will clearly describe available alternatives, taking into account such variables as weather conditions, the traffic situation and delivery schedules as well as the weight and speed of the truck combination.

“We hope that this project will increase awareness in Europe of the many advantages of platooning,” says Sven-Åke Edström, senior vice president, Truck, Cab and Bus Chassis Development. “Platooning will require standardised support systems as well as legislative action that will be clarified in this project.”

The project will also propose common EU regulations permitting shorter distances between trucks in the platoon. The shorter the distance, the greater the fuel saving that can be achieved. However, this would require vehicles to be interconnected through wireless communication systems.

With Spanish companies IDIADA and Transportes Cerezuela as partners, the aim is to test the entire system on Spanish roads during the autumn of 2016. “It’s also a major advantage at this early stage of the project to include future users and thereby benefit from customer feedback,” says project coordinator Magnus Adolfson, head of Intelligent Transport Systems and Services at Scania.
Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Weigh in Motion gets smarter
    January 4, 2023
    Weigh in Motion technology is at the forefront of protecting road surfaces and helping enforcement activity – but could it also play a key role in the development of Smart Cities?
    Read More
  • EU project tests new technologies in Madrid to improve traffic and travel information
    July 25, 2017
    Spanish technology group Indra is implementing the European R&D&i project Harmony, with the collaboration of research groups G@TV and TranSYT from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and with the support of Grupo Interbús and Spain's Traffic Department (DGT). The pilot study is being carried out in Madrid to develop new technologies to integrate real-time data from different transport operators and improve multimodal information services. The three-year project, developed with the Polytechnic University of
    Read More
  • Hyperloop: from sci-fi to transport policy
    April 16, 2020
    The future is here. While it has long looked like something from a sci-fi movie, Graham Anderson investigates a technology whose time might have come.
    Read More
  • First set of standards for C-ITS, ‘a key step towards connected cars in Europe’
    February 13, 2014
    Meeting at the 6th ETSI workshop, the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) have confirmed that the basic set of standards for cooperative intelligence transport systems (C-ITS), as requested by the European Commission in 2009, have now been adopted and issued. The Release 1 specifications developed by CEN and ETSI will enable vehicles made by different manufacturers to communicate with each other and with the road infrastructure systems,
    Read More

Highlighted Content