Skip to main content

ACM to lead collaborative study on autonomous truck platooning

The American Center for Mobility (ACM) will lead a study which seeks to autonomously control a fleet of trucks in Colorado. The two-year project will begin at the end of 2018, followed by a second deployment in Michigan. ACM says it has worked collaboratively to identify and pool resources to help accelerate the safe deployment of autonomous controlled trucks. As part of the programme, tests will be carried out at ACM’s purpose-built facility to assess the reliability of multi-truck convoys travelli
September 26, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
The 8742 American Center for Mobility (ACM) will lead a study which seeks to autonomously control a fleet of trucks in Colorado. The two-year project will begin at the end of 2018, followed by a second deployment in Michigan.


ACM says it has worked collaboratively to identify and pool resources to help accelerate the safe deployment of autonomous controlled trucks.

As part of the programme, tests will be carried out at ACM’s purpose-built facility to assess the reliability of multi-truck convoys travelling at highway speeds on elevated on-ramps, bridges, overpasses and tunnels in mixed traffic scenarios. The 5631 US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will measure the efficiency of the advanced vehicle technologies.

Aside from NREL, other members participating in the project include Auburn University, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Michigan Department of Transportation, and the US Army and Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center.

These partners intend to celebrate their achievements at the end of the initiative with a high-speed truck demonstration at the ACM.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ACM appoints interim chief executive officer and president
    August 22, 2018
    The American Center for Mobility (ACM) has appointed Kirk Steudle as unpaid interim chief executive officer and president until a chief executive is chosen to replace John Maddox. ACM is a US Department of Transportation (DoT) responsible for testing and providing a proving ground for connected and autonomous vehicles. Industry veteran Steudle is chair of ITS America’s board and director of the Michigan DoT, where he is responsible for the construction, maintenance and operation of nearly 10,000 miles of
  • Dynamic charging boosts electric vehicles’ potential
    December 16, 2014
    With an increasing need to use electric vehicles in city centres to reduce pollution, David Crawford looks at various solutions to power delivery. The UN’s September 2014 Climate Summit has added fresh momentum to the drive to increase urban electric vehicle (EV) takeup. It has launched the Urban Electric Mobility Initiative, which wants to see EVs accounting for 30% of all urban travel by 2030, and make cities worldwide more friendly to their use. Encouragingly, the plan is being well supported by commerci
  • US university launches program to study safe integration of semi-autonomous trucks
    May 26, 2017
    The Western Transportation Institute (WTI) at Montana State University is launching a program to study how to safely integrate driverless technology into the US trucking fleet. Similar to the driverless cars being developed by Google and others, self-driving trucks would use sophisticated computers and GPS technology to navigate roadways. Within a decade, the technology is likely to be applied in semi-autonomous truck convoys, or ‘platoons’, in which trucks equipped with self-driving technology would be pro
  • New research assesses potential for driver-assistive truck platooning
    May 29, 2015
    The Phase One Final Report of the Driver-Assistive Truck Platooning (DATP) initiative was recently released by the research team. The DATP truck platooning research, which was funded by a grant from the US Department of Transportation's Exploratory Advanced Research program, utilises radar, vehicle-to-vehicle communications and video technologies to decrease over-the-road truck headways, with the objective of improving fuel economy without compromising safety.