VEHICLE PLATOONING SYSTEMS AND METHODS
First Claim
1. A system for convoying vehicles whereby a following vehicle is caused to follow a lead vehicle, comprisingprocessing system for receiving data about a plurality of vehicles and selecting vehicles for linking in accordance with the data,long distance communications link for directing the candidate vehicles into proximity to one another,short range communications link for communicating among the candidate vehicles to cause the vehicles to move into a linked position, andvehicle control unit responsive to the short range communications link for managing vehicular functions to safely maintain a linked position among the vehicles.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods for coordinating and controlling vehicles, for example heavy trucks, to follow closely behind each other, or linking, in a convenient, safe manner and thus to save significant amounts of fuel while increasing safety. In an embodiment, on-board controllers in each vehicle interact with vehicular sensors to monitor and control, for example, relative distance, relative acceleration/deceleration, and speed. Additional safety features in at least some embodiments include providing each driver with one or more visual displays of forward and rearward looking cameras. Long-range communications are provided for coordinating vehicles for linking, and for communicating analytics to fleet managers or others.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A system for convoying vehicles whereby a following vehicle is caused to follow a lead vehicle, comprising
processing system for receiving data about a plurality of vehicles and selecting vehicles for linking in accordance with the data, long distance communications link for directing the candidate vehicles into proximity to one another, short range communications link for communicating among the candidate vehicles to cause the vehicles to move into a linked position, and vehicle control unit responsive to the short range communications link for managing vehicular functions to safely maintain a linked position among the vehicles.
Specification