Truck Platooning Worldwide

Abstract

AbstractAlthough early attempts date back several decades, truck platooning initiatives and trials gained significant momentum in the 2010s in the light of the overall wave of vehicle automation. This chapter aims at providing an overview of the most significant platooning endeavours over the past two decades, with focus on European efforts and their thematic priorities and conclusions. Whereas for example relevant Southeast Asian countries tend to be driven by national roadmaps and national funding, many of the European projects and trials are funded by the European Commission’s research programmes, bringing together several countries and resulting in more open access information. The presented review demonstrates how the focus of the discussion changed over time, also revealing a shift in the relevant parties and stakeholders: while the initial intention was reduction in fuel costs, the claimed benefits have now diversified and additional interest groups brought to the table environmental, safety, legal, infrastructural and labour regulation arguments for and against platooning.