He questioned whether the notion that drivers could take up another activity while in the autonomous convoy was misjudged.
That is what a European project is hoping to find out by getting cars to link up wirelessly into semi-autonomous convoys, also known as road trains or "platoons".The idea is that by joining platoons as they snake along motorways under the control of a professional lead driver, motorists will be able to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Technology that links vehicles into "road trains" that can travel as a semi-autonomous convoy has undergone its first real world tests.
Peloton is not the only company looking at autonomous truck convoys.
This is a practice already in service in some tests, with convoys of autonomous trucks playing a fairly rigorous game of "follow the leader" based on established pre-set rules.
Next fall, its "Leader-Follower" technology will enable convoys of autonomous vehicles to follow behind one driven by a human.
And the Sartre project in Europe recently sent a convoy of autonomous lorries along the motorways of Spain.
This technology aims to create semi-autonomous road trains, where convoys of vehicles enter a snaking train of vehicles under the command of the lead vehicle.
A fleet of autonomous ships could also sail in convoy with a manned vessel in the lead (as illustrated above).The onshore control rooms would keep an eye on ships thanks to live data transmitted from vessels, including video and infra-red images.
"There's already an autonomous weapons system in place for military convoys – it's a simple gun on top of a vehicle, but if it detects a sniper shot, it can use its sensors to triangulate the origin of the bullet and fire in that direction.
Autonomous and cooperative guidance strategies for a convoy of electric vehicles in an urban context are challenging research topics in robotics and intelligent transportation systems.
