Knorr-Bremse and Continental are taking a further step in their development partnership towards highly automated commercial vehicle driving: for automated platooning (i.e. driving in a column), the world market leader for braking systems, and leading supplier of subsystems for rail and commercial vehicles, and the engineering company from Hanover have joined forces to develop the Platooning Demonstrator, based on a platoon of three trucks of different makes. Initial test runs and demonstrations to customers have already been conducted at testing grounds.
The cooperation partners show with this Platooning Demonstrator what driving functions they can develop jointly with the vehicle manufacturers for automated driving. This includes the formation of platoons, driving together, the emergency braking function, exiting by individual vehicles and safe splitting up of the entire platoon.
“With the Platooning Demonstrator, we’ve reached the first milestone of our joint work. The focus now is on exchanging ideas with the vehicle manufacturers for further development of the system solution in line with the product strategies of the customers”, says Gilles Mabire, Head of the Commercial Vehicles & Aftermarket Business Unit at Continental.
The experience gained during development of the Platooning Demonstrator forms, for both Continental and Knorr-Bremse, the basis for addressing a further application for highly automated driving – the Highway Pilot. Its aim is to enable highly automated driving by single trucks on highways. A first demonstrator is planned for next year. Starting in 2020, the partners will be ready to develop this technology jointly with the manufacturers.
