At a signature ceremony during the ITS World Congress 2021, the European Truck Platoon Challenge (ETPC) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish an integral multi-brand approach and achieve the next step towards deployment of truck platooning.
Since 2016 the ETPC consisting of CLEPA, ACEA, ESC, IRU, CEDR, EReg , under joined ERTICO and UGE (University Gustave Eiffel) management is the multi-stakeholder group that embraces the progress and innovation of truck platoon technologies in Europe.
In 2016 The ETPC has demonstrated the technical feasibility of platooning, by a prestigious demonstration of platooning of three trucks from the same brand, following each other on short distance, thereby assuring safety and fuel reduction. Since the ETPC event in 2016 the technology was further matured in the ENSEMBLE H2020 project.
Supported by the European Commission the ENSEMBLE H2020 project kicked off in May 2018, gathering all major European manufacturers on the same objectives. Together they are working towards an Interbrand, ad hoc and cross-border compliant, multi-truck platoon capability.
Since the beginning of the project, the ETPC, fully eligible within ENSEMBLE, has closely acted as an advisory group. Many of its working activities were integrated within the ENSEMBLE project as separate target deliverables. In 2019 ETPC established the VISION 2022, a common vision on the requirements needed, in order for platooning to hit the European roads in 2022.
ENSEMBLE is developing a roadmap, establishing the ‘ENSEMBLE Platoon Support Function’ as real proven implementations, based upon its developed and implemented V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle) protocol standards proposal, and the ENSEMBLE Autonomous function specifications to be implemented as a second future step.
In 2020, it turned out that the ‘Support function’ was fully in line with VISION 2022, providing a lot of expectation for a post-project deployment potential. The first Implementations are targeting an improved road safety and a vast amelioration of the driver’s conditions by the advanced drivers’ assistance (ADAS) features.
The ETPC’s key role is now to move towards a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), an agreement between the various stakeholders, who invested in the project and are expecting their legitimate returns. The MOU is expected to be materialized in a signature ceremony, organized during the ITS World Congress Hamburg, taking place from 11-15 October 2021.
For further information on the ENSEMBLE project, click here.
