Reply to post: Re: "The convoy part only means the back lorries will copy the front one's"

Re: "The convoy part only means the back lorries will copy the front one's"

@ John Smith 19: So much like that EU project a few years ago with the other cars staying a pre set distance apart and all vehicles braking and accelerating as a unit...

...This technology really is cutting edge.

If I try very hard I can just about see "synchronous braking", but "accelerating as a unit" no

OK if there are 3 identical LGVs, identically loaded then perhaps, but if the same vehicles are loaded with different weights then their acceleration performance is going to differ. The drive trains may have 8 / 12 / 16 gears, given range - change gearboxes and splitters, and for synchronised acceleration to work then those gear changes are going to have to be more or less synchronous as well. If the lead vehicle is lightly loaded it may only have to drop a single gear (which might necessitate a range change) while a following heavier - loaded vehicle might have to drop two gears (or even more) and might definitely need a range change to match any acceleration.

Or are following vehicles going to be able to / have to signal forwards with "I cannot accelerate that fast; reduce Δv"?

If the vehicles are of different design or manufacture (or even age) then their drive trains might be radically different (in terms of number of gears available and their ratios) so that one vehicle might require gear changes that another does not; LGVs have significantly different power bands (as indicated by the green segment on the rev counter) and so on...<further techy stuff omitted>

I would hate to have be the driver in a "following" vehicle; I simply couldn't tolerate being forced to be that close to the vehicle ahead. Apart from that I would be in a state of perpetual worry about how far my legal liability extended in the event of a mishap.