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

  • Driverless Russia: Look – no hands!
    March 26, 2020
    Russia is betting on the importance of driverless cars as the country’s transport system develops in the years to come.
    Read More
  • European cooperative logistics solutions project launched
    February 10, 2014
    Ertico, together with 33 partners, has today launched the EU funded Co-Gistics project, a deployment activity that will unite logistics with cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS). This is the first time that a European project has been fully dedicated to deployment of cooperative services applied to logistics. to be piloted in seven of Europe’s leading logistics centres, Arad, Bordeaux, Bilbao, Frankfurt, Thessaloniki, Trieste and Vigo, Co-Gistics will target the needs of the freight indust
    Read More
  • Smoothing out city freight movements
    May 28, 2014
    David Crawford welcomes a national first. Urban freight movements, while commercially and socially vital, are a growing logistical headache for planners and people alike. Figures from France’s Lyon Laboratory of Transport Economics indicate that goods transport in major urban areas accounts for: 20% of traffic; 35% of CO2 emissions made by all urban trips; and 50% of the diesel used; while final km delivery runs account for 20% of the total cost of the transport chain.
    Read More
  • C-ITS in the EU: ‘A little tribal’
    April 1, 2019
    As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong here are furrowed brows in Brussels and Strasbourg as European Union legislators begin to consider the rules which will underpin future services such as connected vehicles. The idea is to create a regulatory framework to harmonise cooperative ITS
    Read More

Highlighted Content