Volvo Group Venture Capital, a subsidiary of the Volvo Group, has invested in Peloton Technology, a California-based developer of a truck platooning system designed to help deliver safety and fuel savings to fleets in the trucking industry. The investment amount was not disclosed.
According to Volvo, Peloton's truck platooning system is an integrated safety, efficiency and analytics platform that builds on advanced safety technologies such as collision mitigation and adaptive cruise control systems. The Peloton system electronically couples trucks through a combination of vehicle-to-vehicle communications, radar-based active braking systems and proprietary vehicle control algorithms. The result, says Volvo, is enhanced collision-avoidance capabilities and increased fuel efficiency for the front and rear trucks in a two-truck platoon.
Volvo says a study of Peloton's system by the North American Council for Freight Efficiency and a major fleet, using the industry standard SAE Type II test, showed reductions in fuel consumption of 10% for the rear commercial vehicle and of more than 4% for the front vehicle. Other U.S. and international studies of truck platooning have also shown high levels of fuel efficiency improvement, adds Volvo.
Furthermore, Peloton is developing a Platooning Network Operations Center, a cloud-based service to help trucks find platooning partners, collect vehicle and driver data, and allow the approval or adjustment of platooning parameters.
