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Porsche rainmaker advocates platooning

Porsche rainmaker advocates platooning

Technology News |
By eeNews Europe



In times when new players such as Google (and perhaps soon, Apple) are entering the automotive market, the traditional top dogs are becoming thoughtful. As a matter of fact, the entire European automotive industry currently is in search mode for solutions to the challenges of the automotive markets of the future. At the recent annual Euroforum Automotive Electronics congress in Munich, this was also the case. Armin Müller who oversees strategic future projects Porsche, analysed the situation. Given the incredible awesome of the markets in China and the mega traffic streams it is expected to generate, it is obvious that the market will be much different from today. More roads and highways are not a solution, Müller conceded. Ecologic compatibility is becoming a must even for sports car makers.

From the perspective of the powertrain, plug-in hybrids will be the most promising solution, Müller explained, because they reduce the effective fuel consumption significantly. Battery electric vehicles are no solution, at least for the time being. "As long as the driving range is not good enough, they won’t see acceptance at the markets", Müller stated.


The throughput of motorways could be maximised without high investments into traffic infrastructure by establishing platooning as a standard option for highway travel, Müller suggested. Platooning has already been tested successfully by fellow carmaker (and to a certain extend, competitor) Volvo. With platooning, cars organise themselves in groups with the leading vehicle assuming the control over the speed for a certain time or distance. Merging into the platoon is done electronically with existing distance sensors and inter-vehicle communications; once logged into the platoon, the vehicle could drive along to a large extend automatically.

All vehicles but the leader benefit from driving in the slipstream of the vehicle in front which already helps to reduce fuel consumption. More relevant however is the fact that all vehicles are moving along at the same speed and at short distances. Thus, the capacity of the motorways is utilised much better than with today’s individual (and most of the time, a bit chaotic) traffic. The effective capacity per lane could be multiplied massively, Müller worked out. What’s more, this mild form of automated driving would increase traffic safety significantly, Müller explained. "In the US alone, we see 3000 traffic fatalities caused by inattentive driving", he said, suggesting that this type of traffic organisation could reduce this figure drastically.

To make this way of travelling possible, some conditions need to be met. The availability of V2X communications is one of these requirements. "We need standards, complete network coverage and assessment methods for the safety of such systems", he said. Also the legal conditions have to be modified accordingly.

Platooning of course does not put an end to individual responsibility and control. Once a participant has reached the motorway exit of his destination, he withdraws from the platoon and continues the travel in the conventional way.

Something different probably would not be imaginable for a dyed-in-the-wool sports car manufacturer. Müller concluded his presentation with a quote of the legendary company founder Ferry Porsche: "The last car that ever will be built will be a sports car."

Related articles:

SARTRE consortium tests automotive "platooning"

Traffic flow: Cooperative systems beat driver assistance

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