Wabco today announced that it is working with Peloton Technology to advance an innovative solution for truck platooning, integrating commercial vehicle-to-vehicle communication and other automation technologies that further improve safety and fuel efficiency.
By electronically linking two or more tractor-trailers to form virtual road-trains on highways, platooning increases fuel economy by more than 7%, namely up to 4.5% for the lead truck and up to 10% for following trucks due to improved aerodynamics, according to independent evaluation by the North American Council on Freight Efficiency and further validation by the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Transportation. WABCO will contribute to this work with its industry-leading portfolio of braking, advanced stability and emergency braking systems, including predictive cruise control. Peloton will bring its proprietary platooning technologies, which are currently under testing on U.S. Highways.
WABCO’s OnGuardACTIVE™ collision mitigation system, with its superior 77GHz radar sensor, is a key enabler of the platoon’s trucks. When necessary, it provides active braking to avoid or mitigate impending rear-end collisions. Peloton’s systems enable platooning through advanced vehicle-to-vehicle wireless communication, enabling tractor-trailers to accelerate and brake together and safely operate at closer distances to gain aerodynamic efficiencies. Peloton’s Network Operations Center supervises the platooning trucks, allowing platooning only where, when and how it is safe to do so. Peloton’s system also processes real-time data gathered from sensors linked to other vehicle active safety and automation systems, including WABCO’s OnGuard™ emergency braking system and from WABCO’s rich source of instant digital information about the vehicle’s systems and their Performance.
In addition, WABCO reports that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a global tier-one automotive industry supplier headquartered in Asia to bring active steering and other technologies to the commercial industry through a new joint venture (JV). The MoU sets a framework to establish a JV agreement for a new business that will develop, manufacture and sell electronically controlled active steering systems for the global truck and bus market.
