Truck “Platooning” Signed into Law in Michigan
Peloton Technology, a connected and automated vehicle technology company, applauded Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s signing of S.B. 995 into law recently.
The legislation authorizes electronically-coordinated truck platooning on Michigan roads by creating an exception to the state’s required minimum following distance for commercial vehicles of 500 feet.
“With the signing of this landmark law, Michigan now leads the nation in the rollout of commercial truck platooning,” said Josh Switkes, CEO of Peloton Technology, a developer of connected and automated vehicle systems.
Only a few U.S. states have numeric minimum following distances that apply to commercial vehicles, ranging from 100 feet to 500 feet. These rules represent a hurdle to truck platooning, which integrates technologies including vehicle-to-vehicle communications; adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance systems, which did not exist at the time the rules, were enacted. The new technologies are designed to improve the safety of commercial vehicles while also allowing for closer prudent following distances, as the rear truck in a platoon can respond to braking by the lead truck in approximately 10 milliseconds, bypassing a lag in driver perception and reaction time.
Under the new law, the Michigan Department of Transportation and Michigan State Police will review plans submitted to the agencies by the operators of platoons before vehicles are allowed to platoon on the state’s roads.
The law also requires that truck platoons allow access for other vehicles to move safely between platooning trucks. In addition, drivers holding a valid commercial driver license must be behind the wheel of every truck in a platoon.
While 11 other states have approved testing and trial activity, Michigan is first in the country to support deployment of platooning in commercial fleet operations.
Due to reach commercial trucking fleets in 2017, Peloton’s two-truck system provides a wireless communications link between the active safety systems of heavy trucks, enabling pairs of trucks to coordinate their speeds and maintain a safe, aerodynamic following distance. The North American Council for Freight Efficiency has validated fuel savings from the Peloton system of 4.5% for the lead truck and 10% for the follow truck in a two-truck platoon.
Similar to adaptive cruise control, which already is used widely in the trucking industry, the Peloton system controls vehicle speed by applying automated brake and throttle commands. Drivers in a platoon retain steering control, and can choose to dissolve platooning in response to changing conditions.
The Peloton system employs DSRC, cellular LTE and WiFi communications to connect trucks to each other and to an Internet cloud-based Network Operations Center (NOC) that provides continuous management and supervision of platoons.
Some nearby states, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, have approved testing of platooning, while policy discussions are underway in Ohio and several other states towards commercial approval. Across the nation, states that have approved platooning testing or trials are Texas, Tennessee, California, Ohio, Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Utah.
Category: Connected Fleet News, Featured
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