Three cars and a truck successfully drove themselves 200 kilometres down a highway in Spain, using radar and laser tracking to follow each other closely while their human passengers read magazines. Project SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) tested the vehicles alongside actual human motorists, some of whom may have caused safety issues of their own by rubbernecking at the hands-free steering wheels.
Volvo and car automation company Ricardo wanted to test how well the cars could follow a lead vehicle in real traffic. A truck and three Volvo vehicles, an XC60, a V60 and a S60, drove behind a manned, controlled truck cruising at 85 kilometres per hour. The team covered 200 kilometres in one day, according to Volvo, which is one of the main SARTRE partners. The cars traveled between 5 and 15 metres apart throughout the test.
