Skip to main content

Ricardo contributes to European truck platooning project

UK engineering and environmental consultancy Ricardo has lent its expertise to the first European Truck Platooning Challenge of the EcoTwin project, commencing in Westerlo, Belgium. Led by the Netherlands, the European Truck Platooning Challenge will involve various brands of automated trucks driving in platoons on public highways from several European cities to the Netherlands. The aim of the Challenge is to bring truck platooning one step closer to implementation, with the vision that it could soon be
April 6, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
UK engineering and environmental consultancy 5606 Ricardo has lent its expertise to the first European Truck Platooning Challenge of the EcoTwin project, commencing in Westerlo, Belgium.

Led by the Netherlands, the European Truck Platooning Challenge will involve various brands of automated trucks driving in platoons on public highways from several European cities to the Netherlands. The aim of the Challenge is to bring truck platooning one step closer to implementation, with the vision that it could soon become a reality in Europe.

For the EcoTwin project, Ricardo used a range of functional safety standards considered to be the most relevant for autonomous transport systems. Based upon these existing standards, Ricardo outlined and supported the safety approach for the EcoTwin project and analysed the risks and failure modes and compiled the evidence of the safe application of driverless solutions.

Subsequently, Ricardo provided support in meetings and discussions with RDW, the Netherlands Vehicle Authority, in the mobility chain as well as with ERTICO, a platform for the co-operation of all relevant stakeholders to develop and deploy intelligent transportation systems standards in Europe.

Related Content

  • June 11, 2015
    Machine vision’s image of road management’s future
    Q-Free’s Marco Sinnema looks at how the commoditisation of high-quality vision-based solutions is widening their application. Machine vision technology’s entry into the ITS/traffic management sector has followed a classic top-down path. This is unsurprising given the extremely demanding performance criteria which are the standard in its market of origin, manufacturing processing. Very high image qualities combined with frame rates often in the hundreds per second range resulted in vision systems with capabi
  • January 14, 2020
    Future of tolling: the priorities
    In the final part of his investigation into the future of tolling technology, Josef Czako of Moving Forward Consulting asks what industry figures see as the priorities going forward…
  • July 26, 2012
    Personal Rapid Transit, clear benefits for European cities
    David Crawford watches the race to get the world's first PRT system up and running. To paraphrase the old joke about buses bunching, you seem to have to wait several decades for a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system, and then half a dozen come along together. Currently, in fact, there are well over that number of schemes for driverless electric passenger-carrying 'pod' networks at various stages of planning, design and implementation around the world. Locations range from a straight-off-the-drawing board ne
  • October 8, 2018
    Blockchain: the next big thing for ITS? Really?
    Everyone’s heard of blockchain – but most people are less sure about what it really is, and how it might be used in transportation. Andrew Williams peers into cyberspace to find some answers. A growing number of organisations in the ITS industry are exploring how blockchain technology could be used for ITS and mobility applications. So, what exactly is blockchain technology? What are the key current and potential applications in the mobility and ITS sector? And what practical benefits might it bring?