Skip to main content

Federal Highway Administration showcases truck platooning technology

The US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has conducted the first of a two-day demonstration of three-truck platoons on I-66 in Virginia. The results of a four-year research project to test the effectiveness of state-of-the-art driving and communications technologies were showcased at the event. Truck platooning uses vehicle-to-vehicle communications technology to allow trucks to follow each other more closely – at about one second apart – and travel in a more coordinated fashion.
September 15, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
The US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has conducted the first of a two-day demonstration of three-truck platoons on I-66 in Virginia. The results of a four-year research project to test the effectiveness of state-of-the-art driving and communications technologies were showcased at the event.


Truck platooning uses vehicle-to-vehicle communications technology to allow trucks to follow each other more closely – at about one second apart – and travel in a more coordinated fashion.

While various aspects of truck platooning have been studied for years, FHWA’s Exploratory Advance Research program has taken testing to new levels with the addition of cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) technology, which adds vehicle-to-vehicle communications to the adaptive cruise control capability now available in new vehicles. This connectivity allows trucks to operate more smoothly as a unit, reducing and controlling the gaps between vehicles.

The demonstration involved partially automated trucks – which are not driverless, and used professional drivers. The advanced technology that makes platooning possible is meant to supplement, not replace, the nation’s commercial motor vehicle operators.

UTC

Related Content

  • June 1, 2015
    Denso to invest in truck platooning technology
    Denso International America has entered into an investment agreement with Peloton Technology, which will help accelerate Peloton's development and deployment of platooning technology. The technology aims to increase fuel economy and improve safety for the global trucking industry. Platooning technology uses vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) wireless communication and radar to pair trucks to travel closely together and thus create an aerodynamic system that is similar to drafting in r
  • June 5, 2018
    TRA 2018: Vienna conference highlights
    Digitalisation of transport systems, the regulation of new technologies and more charging points for electric vehicles in cities were among the talking points at this year’s Transport Research Arena conference. Alan Dron sifts through the highlights in Vienna. More than 3,000 transport sector specialists converged on TRA 2018, where the four-day event’s agenda included scores of topics covering regulation, technology and the effect of the digitalisation of road transport systems. Who should control those
  • November 21, 2012
    Doha implements traffic control system
    Expansion of ITS systems has accelerated in Qatar this year, with rapid deployment of a traffic control system in Doha. Less than 10 years from now an extensive system of ITS technology will be operating in Qatar, informing and directing users of the country’s roads. That can be stated with confidence for a number of reasons: the world’s richest country per capita will host the World Cup in 2022 and is understood to be planning to develop sophisticated systems of ITS for road safety and traffic managemen
  • May 11, 2012
    Funding shortfall for US Interstate upgrades
    Andrew Bardin Williams investigates tolling on the federal Interstate system as maintenance and upgrade requirements increasingly outpace funding The I-95 corridor through North Carolina is one of the most heavy trafficked interstates in the US, seeing upwards of 46,000 vehicles per day in some stretches-and North Carolina’s Department of Transportation (NCDOT) estimates this number will to rise to 98,000 vehicles per day by 2040. Along with the rest of the federal interstate system, the North Carolina str