greenfuelconversion.com

Road Trains

Posted on 11/10/2009 at 12:03:20 PM

One way that has been suggested to increase fuel efficiency of cars travelling on the motorway is to make them travel in close proximity in ‘trains’ of cars. This reduces the amount of fuel used because each car is benefiting from reduced drag. Fuel savings could be as great as 20%.

The lead car, handled by a professional driver,  would monitor the status of the road train and collect up to eight cars.   Sensors on each vehical would monitor the distance and control the throttle and brakes to ensure that the distance between each car was kept constant.

Research is being conducted by a number of universities in the US. While in Europe, a research project funded by the European Comission is aimed at a system for commuters that travel long distances to work and commercial vehicals.  Road trials will be held on test tracks in the UK, Sweden and Spain and even public road trials in Spain.