Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 15

Peloton's technology allows
trucks to lead, follow and even
switch positions during a drive.

collision avoidance system, air disc
brakes on the tractor and antilock brakes
on the trailer.
The tractors also need nonmetallic mirrors, because Peloton installs dedicated
short-range communications antennas
there. Metallic surfaces interfere with the
short-range signals.
Drivers can engage the system on multilane, divided highways that have been
approved by Peloton. Decent weather
and light traffic are also required for
the technology to work. Despite these
restrictions, Peloton has already tested
platooning trucks for over 100,000 miles.
Peloton says the system offers overall
fuel savings of 7 percent, with the lead
truck improving 4.5 percent and the following truck by 10 percent. Installing
PlatoonPro hardware on a truck costs
$2,900, McLane said.
Peloton's technology allows a truck
to either lead or follow and even switch
positions during a drive. McLane said this
will benefit truckers from different fleets
when they platoon, with each spending
half of the time in the lead position so

both get maximum fuel economy.
The company's Level 4 platooning
technology will have an even bigger
impact, McLane said, including cutting
labor expenses in half. With that technology, the second truck in a platoon
is fully automated and driverless, and
the driver in the first truck controls both
as they cruise down the highway. This
technology "harnesses the world's best
sensor: humans," McLane said, and
it can be deployed sooner rather than
later since there is still a driver leading
the convoy.

AUTOMAKERS ON BOARD

Peloton is not the only company working
on truck platooning.
Tesla is considering testing platooning prototypes in Nevada, according to
Reuters.
Daimler has tested platooning in
the U.S., Europe and Japan for years.
However, according to TruckingInfo,
Martin Daum, head of Daimler's trucks
and buses divisions, said at the IAA
Commercial Vehicle Show in 2018 that

platooning may never go into production.
Volvo Trucks and FedEx tested three
Volvo VNL tractors, each pulling two
28-foot trailers, in a platoon on a highway
in North Carolina in 2018. Volvo Group
has also tested platooning in Europe,
logging more than 50,000 miles.
These tests proved that platooning is
viable and attractive to shipping companies, said Johan Larsson, director of
autonomous solutions for Volvo Trucks
North America. The trucks were driven
by humans, but the platooning distance
for the follow trucks was automated and
controlled by V2V technology.
Volvo Group made autonomous trucking announcements with both Nvidia
and Perceptive Automata in June, bringing in more AI technology to self-driving
truck tests. Larsson said that while platooning "normal trucks" - i.e., with a
driver in each truck in the platoon or at
least in the lead truck - is promising,
platooning with autonomous trucks is on
Volvo's radar.
"When you have autonomous trucks,
why not platoon?" he said. n
july 2019 * shift

15
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019

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