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The SARTRE project aims to automate slipstreaming of multiple vehicles on the highway
(Image: The system being tested in a road train simulator)
Brussels,Belgium -Jalopnik, by Darren Quick -December 13, 2010: -- The European SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) project, which is developing technology to automate slipstreaming of multiple vehicles on highways, is now a year into its three-year program. The first year has been spent ironing out the concept and investigating the requirements of a prototype system, as well as how people will react to using it. Now the program is set to enter the implementation phase, starting with the testing of a single lead and following vehicle... The benefits of slipstreaming or drafting in reducing fuel consumption (and therefore CO2 emissions) are well known and the technique is already widely used in bike and car racing. The team says exploiting the resultant lower air drag would allow vehicles to achieve energy savings in the region of 20 percent. But that’s only one of the benefits that the project hopes to bring to drivers... Additionally, as shown in a short documentary film produced by SARTRE (below), the technology has been tested in a road train simulator. One of the goals of the simulator tests has been to see how people react to tailgating a car traveling at speeds of 90 km/h (56 mph) without actually controlling the car. While some people were found to completely trust the system, others are understandably a little more wary...(Video from YouTube, by spkoncernen -24 Nov 2010:The EU SARTRE project -- which aims to develop, test and validate technology for vehicles that can drive themselves in long road trains on motorways -- has released a documentary film describing the first year's work of this multi-partner research initiative)
The SARTRE project aims to carry out the first single lead and single following vehicle tests before the end of December, 2010, with the goal of demonstrating a five-vehicle road train that can handle interactions with other road users to be carried out in 2011 and early 2012. However, the team admits that, even if all the technology required for the system is validated, it will probably take ten years or more before such rolling road trains become a reality on our highways...
