Peloton CEO and other Team Members To Speak At Automated Vehicles Symposium 2016

San Francisco, CA – Peloton Technology Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Joshua Switkes, will make remarks at the Automated Vehicles Symposium (AVS) 2016 at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, July 19 at the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco, CA. Dr. Switkes will follow U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx and others in addressing the world’s largest gathering of professionals involved with making automated vehicles a reality.

In his remarks, entitled “Truck Automation: Enabling ADAS and Beyond through Connectivity,” Dr. Switkes will emphasize how Peloton’s Driver Assistive Truck Platooning (DATP) system, which is designed to improve safety and fuel efficiency of Class 8 trucks, is a solution that is set to enter the commercial market quickly, providing immediate benefits to trucking fleets and setting the stage for safe deployment of higher levels of automation.

Peloton’s DATP system electronically links pairs of trucks to form an aerodynamic “platoon” by pioneering the first-ever deployment of vehicle-to-vehicle communications in heavy trucking, combined with radar-based active safety systems and proprietary vehicle-control algorithms. Platooning trucks generally operate at distances of 30-50 feet and have demonstrated fuel savings of 10% for the rear truck and 4.5% for the front truck.

“Peloton’s DATP system is Level 1 automation, meaning both drivers in a two truck platoon stay in continuous direct control of steering and other essential driving functions,” Switkes says. “This Level 1 system provides immediate crash prevention and fuel savings benefits, as well as rich field data generation for advanced analytics. In future Peloton solutions, higher levels of automation in the following truck will unlock further fuel savings, driver fatigue reduction and increased driver productivity.”

Peloton Co-Founder and Vice President for External Affairs Steve Boyd will participate in the “Future Challenges of Automated Trucks” Breakout Session on Tuesday, July 19 to add Peloton’s perspective on this and other topics.

“From the beginning, we have built our entire platooning system around safety, including avoiding ambiguity around responsibility for the driving task,” Boyd notes. “We make each, individual platoon-enabled truck safer at all times by requiring a state-of-the-art collision mitigation system be installed as the foundation of our DATP system. We also use a cloud-based “Network Operations Center” (NOC) to improve each driver’s awareness of hazards such as upcoming traffic slow-downs and inclement weather. We understand that trained, professional drivers operate commercial vehicles, so our Level 1 platooning system is designed to leverage and complement driver experience and expertise, not replace it.”

To provide an additional level of safety and effectiveness, Peloton’s Network Operations Center always ensures the DATP system is only used under appropriate conditions on approved roads. This means highway speed DATP is dynamically managed to only occur on limited access, multi-lane divided highways under lower traffic conditions. Such road segments present low congestion environments, which maximize fuel savings from platooning. Every Peloton DATP system includes GPS- and 4G-LTE-enabled features that automatically limit highway DATP system operation to only such approved highways and after a real-time assessment of traffic and weather conditions.

Throughout AVS16, Dr. Switkes, Mr. Boyd, and other Peloton representatives will highlight the unique characteristics of Level 1 DATP among the wide range of connected and automated vehicle technologies being developed today, including how DATP can immediately improve safety and fuel efficiency while creating a clear pathway to higher following vehicle automation and, ultimately, stand alone automation for trucks.