Sartre road train project enters final phase

The Sartre (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) project, funded by the European Union, has announced that it has successfully completed the first test demonstrations of a multiple vehicle platoon. The test fleet included a lead truck followed by three cars driven entirely autonomously at speeds of up to 90 km/h (57mph) – with no more than six metres gap between the vehicles. The project is being driven by seven European partners and is the only one of its kind to focus on the development of technology that can be implemented on conventional highways in which platooned traffic operates in a mixed environment with other road users.

Sartre, led by Ricardo UK, compromises a collaboration between Idiada and Robotiker-Tecnalia of Spain, Institut for Kraftfahrwesen Aachen (IKA) of Germany, SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, and Volvo Car Corporation and Volvo Technology of Sweden.