What does this have to do with TEAM? Well, if trucks can’t drive through the city traffic efficiently we all have a problem - especially during peak traffic periods. When trucks are for instance not able to keep enough distance to other traffic participants or have issues with lane changing or merging, this can seriously affect the traffic flow in a city and lead to dangerous traffic situations.
To prevent that, heavyweight vehicles are also part of TEAM and several applications have been developed to address challenges and issues connected to trucks. In the Euro-EcoChallenge, a Europe-wide test for TEAM technology, these applications are tested in five different countries: Italy, Germany, Greece, Finland and Sweden. On a test site near Gothenburg, trucks were made ready by the TEAM developers to face specific traffic challenges.


And TEAM is even going one step further, by taking traffic information into account. The speed of the truck is adapted regarding e.g. upcoming traffic incidents, traffic light phases, and infrastructure related incidents like construction sites.
This collaboration between vehicles and infrastructure is the reason why TEAM calls this application collaborative adaptive cruise control (C-ACC).
Another important challenge in nowadays traffic is vehicles merging. Changing lanes safely is a real issue. Merging from lane to lane in heavy traffic, especially before a truck, can be annoying and it can also be dangerous. Through including several sources of information, TEAM can again help to increase safety and efficiency in this situation.

The TEAM trucks have taken these challenges successfully. However, there are more challenges waiting. Stay tuned for more information about the Euro-EcoChallenge and how TEAM applications are tested in different parts of Europe.
Francesco Bellotti