Scania reaffirms platooning commitment

Scania has reaffirmed its belief in and commitment to platooning technology, even as another trucking heavyweight – Daimler Trucks – puts the brakes on its platooning research.

During a recent visit to Australia, the CEO and President of Scania AB, Henrik Henriksson (pictured below), was quick to confirm the brand's investment in platooning, where multiple trucks are linked via vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity technology in convoy behind a lead truck and trailer.

The basic theory behind the technology is that the following trucks stand to reap significant fuel savings, as they effective 'slipstream' the lead truck and avoid the bulk of the aerodynamic resistance.

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"We are continuing with it because we believe … there are business cases in that – there are business cases in a 'highway pilot', and we see that from the trials we are doing in Finland at the moment with platooning that [not only] are the fuel savings dramatic, but that the feedback from the drivers is tremendous – they say 'I'm coming back from one full day on the job and I feel much more relaxed and rested'," Mr Henriksson said, when addressing truck media in Melbourne.

"So we don't want to close down those sorts of alternatives; we see that there will be business cases and applications for that."

Earlier this year, as it launched its volume-production semi-autonomous Freightliner Cascadia in North America, Daimler Trucks said it had changed its position on platooning, after testing the technology over a number of years.

"Results show that fuel savings, even in perfect platooning conditions, are less than expected and that those savings are further diminished when the platoon gets disconnected and the trucks must accelerate to reconnect," stated a Daimler Trucks media release at the time.

"At least for US long-distance applications, analysis currently shows no business case for customers driving platoons with new, highly aerodynamic trucks," the release continued.

However, according to Mr Henriksson, the benefits of platooning go beyond fuel efficiency, and can be amplified when the technology is combined with other emerging technologies.

"It's not only fuel savings, it's also safety," he said.

"And if you start combining this with other technologies… have you seen the trials we are doing now in some countries where we build these electrical highways?

"If you start thinking about having that sort of infrastructure and you combine an electrical highway with platooning you basically get an increased effect on both CO2 and also efficiency."

Platooning might be very simple in concept but the reality of multiple truck-and-trailer combinations following a lead truck presents a number of technological hurdles. Safe and effective platooning requires a high level of vehicle automation and wireless connectivity, both hot field of truck technology research.

It also present compatibility issues across different truck and trailer brands – a prominent concern in a market like Australia, which sources trucks from Europe, Japan and the US – while the successful introduction of platooning also requires both the truck industry's and the general public's trust, along with a legislative and regulatory framework to allow its development and eventual uptake.

Recent multi-brand platooning, or CACC (co-operative adaptive cruise control) trials, have been taking place in Japan, potentially pointing the way to a more integrated technological truck framework that crosses previously impenetrable corporate divides.

Whatever the future holds for platooning, rest assured Australia's decades-old and relatively simple take on the technology – otherwise known as road trains – will remain a common feature on our outback roads for many years to come.