Truck Platooning Technology Get $16 Million Investment

DENSO International America has invested in Peloton Technology, a developer of platooning systems that are designed to advance safety and fuel savings for large truck transportation fleets.

DENSO and Intel Capital co-led the $16 million oversubscribed Series A investment round, which will help accelerate Peloton’s development and deployment of platooning technology.

The technology aims to increase fuel economy and improve safety for the global trucking industry. Platooning technology uses vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) wireless communication and radar to pair trucks to travel closely together and thus create an aerodynamic system that is similar to drafting in race cars.

The direct communication system provides a way for trucks to ‘talk’ with each other and safely follow another truck with the same features to improve braking and acceleration time, increase safety and reduce fuel costs. For more than a decade, DENSO has been researching and developing V2X technology systems to allow cars to communicate with surrounding vehicles and traffic signals.

The application of this technology to the trucking industry could potentially help large fleet vehicles reduce fuel consumption by 10 percent for the rear truck and 4.5 percent for the front truck.

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