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European Commission-funded Sartre project aims to reduce accidents, congestions and emissions
European Commission-funded Sartre project aims to reduce accidents, congestions and emissions
It may seem like something out of Bladerunner but a European Commission-funded research project could result in automated road trains - or platoons - travelling on Europe's motorways by 2021.
Given the go-ahead in 2009, Safe Road Trains for the Environment, or Sartre, is a three-year project to develop a system to enable cars to follow and be controlled by a lead vehicle. One of the conditions of the project is that the system won't require any changes to be made to the roads used by the platoons.
Shown above is the first test of the technology outside a simulator, which was carried out at Volvo's Hällered test track near Gothenburg in Sweden in December. The Volvo S60 is being directed and controlled by the truck, which is being driven by a professional driver.
The project is being led by Leamington Spa-based product development company Ricardo UK in collaboration with Spain's Idiada and Robotiker-Tecnalia, Germany's Institut für Kraftfahrwesen in Aachen and Sweden's SP Technical Research Institute as well as Volvo Car Corporation and Volvo Technology.
Volvo became involved due to the potential of its existing lane assistance and adaptive cruise control car production technology - which monitors and controls the distance between cars - to form the basis of the automated convoy.
Caption by: Tim Ferguson
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