Revolutionary truck safety and efficiency technology demonstrated on Detroit highway

Peloton Technology, DENSO and Meritor WABCO recently completed a four-day demonstration of highway truck platooning today in cooperation with the Michigan Department of Transportation at the ITS World Congress 2014. The demonstration featured a pair of tractor-trailers equipped with Peloton truck platooning systems, DENSO dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) radios and Meritor WABCO active safety systems for heavy trucks. Along a route covering I-75 and I-10 near downtown Detroit, the two trucks traveled in an electronically linked formation that provides new levels of safety and efficiency for freight trucking.

The demo operated from a staging area at Atwater and Beubien Streets on the Detroit River side of the GM Renaissance Center. Throughout the week, demo participants included senior officials and leaders from the U.S. Department of Transportation, State DOTs, leading automotive and truck OEMs, top industry suppliers, and other national and international transportation leaders. Among the attendees were top officials from the State of Michigan including M-DOT Director, Kirk Steudle, and senior federal leaders from NHTSA, FHWA, and FMCSA.

The V2V communications and driver assistance technology has been developed to reduce truck crashes and fuel costs, two major pain points for the $650 billion U.S. freight trucking industry. For two-truck platoons, the system generates an average fuel savings of 7-10 percent, with both the front and rear trucks benefiting from fuel savings. Last November in Utah, these results were shown in an independently evaluated fuel economy test in partnership with trucking fleet CR England and the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (industrystandard SAE J1321 Type II test). The system’s significant fuel efficiency performance has also been independently shown in comprehensive track testing held by the U.S. Department of Energy in March 2014.

In platooning mode, the Peloton system synchronizes acceleration and braking between the paired trucks while drivers retain steering control and command of the system. Powered by DENSO DSRC radios, high-fidelity truck-to-truck communication enables the rear truck to react nearly instantaneously to match the speed and braking of the front truck. Collision avoidance systems by Meritor WABCO employ forward radar and emergency braking technologies to identify and avoid highway hazards whether the trucks are in platoon or operating independently. Other features, including an in-cab ‘blind spot’ video feed which shows each driver the other driver’s view in real time – improving safety and driver awareness.

“This advanced truck platooning system is transforming trucking using an extension of proven safety innovations for heavy trucks,” said Peloton CEO Josh Switkes. “The goal of the system is to make Peloton equipped trucks the safest on the road, when they are on their own and when they travel together in a two-truck platoon. With the same hardware, these trucks also become the most efficient on the road.”

“During platooning, two trucks act as one vehicle to the greatest degree possible, with each truck braking and accelerating at the same time while drivers control steering,” explained Alan Korn, director of advanced brake
systems integration for Meritor WABCO. “This week’s demonstrations show how platooning can be practical and deliver multiple safety and efficiency benefits to the industry.”

“The alliance of Peloton, DENSO and Meritor WABCO has managed to take a big step forward in actually demonstrating the platooning concept and moving it closer to real world deployment,” said Ron Abbott, director of heavy duty dales, DENSO International America. “Our ultimate goal is to utilize this technology to contribute to a safer world and take some of the burden off the environment. This aligns with DENSO’s 2020 vision of preserving the planet and providing security and safety through core technologies.”

In addition to connecting trucks with each other, the Peloton system connects trucks to a cloud-based Network Operations Center, or NOC, which helps equipped trucks find each other and authorizes them to form a platoon when they meet key safety parameters accounting for vehicle, road and weather conditions and location.

Platooning is only authorized on appropriate multi-lane divided highways. The front and rear trucks are ordered dynamically according to their weight and braking ability – so that the truck with the longer stopping distance is
always placed in front.

The NOC also relays robust data on trucks and drivers – ranging from real-time fuel savings to hours-of-service status – back to fleet managers. The system’s core platooning sensors and deep data monitoring allows Peloton
to also provide higher quality contextual analytics and prognostics, providing fleet managers with better tools to improve safety, predictive maintenance, driver training, truck performance analysis, real-time load monitoring,
and address other key freight management priorities.

“Our engineers come from deep backgrounds in vehicle automation, safety, cloud-services and data management,” said Switkes. “We’ve focused on designing a system that makes freight trucking safer, smarter,
and more efficient. In the future our systems will also be applied to passenger cars with the same transformative
impact.”

Beyond freight trucking, Peloton is examining opportunities to develop related systems for use with passenger vehicles and lower speed functionalities for commercial vehicles operating in congested areas and secure, safety-critical environments such as ports and border crossings.