By Ronan Glon
Thursday, Jan 26th, 2012 @ 7:49 am

The Safe Road Trains for the Environment (SARTRE) project that Volvo has been involved in since September of 2009 has just reached a major milestone.

A convoy of three entirely autonomous cars completed a test run at 55 miles per hour with an average distance of a little over 19 feet between them. Everything worked as planned and there were no accidents or technical issues to report. It is worth noting that the test took place on a private and closed test track, not on a public highway.

The project is now ready to enter the final phase of testing.

“The aim is for the entire road train to be completed in autumn 2012. By then we will have four vehicles after one lead vehicle driving at 90 km/h,” said Erik Coelingh, the technical project manager for Volvo Car Corporation.

The road train is led by a truck or a bus driven by a professional driver. The cars that follow it are equipped with a purpose-built GPS unit and use a wide array of sensors, cameras, and lasers to autonomously follow the lead vehicle.

Volvo says that the road train’s main advantage over other autonomous systems such as BMW’s ConnectDrive Connect is that it allows the driver to be entirely disconnected from the road. This reduces fatigue, accidents, and lets the driver to read a book, eat or surf on a tablet.

Since the cars are following each other at a relatively close distance, the reduced air drag equates to a lower fuel consumption and lower CO2 emissions. The system is also said to make better use of road space and to reduce traffic jams.

The SARTRE project is funded by the European Commission. If it is successful, it could be implemented on major highways throughout the European Union in less than a decade, provided that the legal issues surrounding autonomous cars can be overcome.

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