The coffee-drinking driver of the Volvo S60 in the above photo has his foot nowhere near the brake, and he isn't even steering with his knees. He's not, however, about to become a statistic about tailgating and distracted driving. He's part of the world's first successful "road train," a setup in which cars are programmed to automatically follow professionally-driven lead cars to reduce accidents and congestion.

Road trains, also known as "platooning," feature vehicles that automatically monitor the distance, speed and direction of the car immediately in front and mimic its actions during long-haul drives on preplanned routes. Vehicles can leave the platoon at any time, but with the ability to concentrate on breakfast and a newspaper, we can't see why anyone would want to.

"This is a major milestone for this important European research program," said Tom Robinson. Robinson is the road-train project coordinator for Ricardo UK, one of the seven companies working on the Safe Road Trains for the Environment (Sartre) project, which is partly funded by the European Commission. "Platooning offers the prospect of improved road safety, better road-space utilization, improved driver comfort on long journeys and reduced fuel consumption and hence CO2 emissions," he said.

Sartre statistics estimate that road trains could increase safety by reducing rear-end collisions, bring emissions down by up to 20 percent and allow vehicles to safely travel closer together, easing congestion. Autonomous cars would also free up drivers to make the most of their commute. The technology may be ready for production in a few years if trials continue to go well, but project organizers agree that it may take some time before public acceptance and local laws catch up to the engineering.

Though the tests took place last December, Volvo just released the photos this week. After that self-braking S60 failed to stop in front of invited guests and media, we can only imagine they wanted to make sure nothing embarrassing happened on film.

Photos: Volvo

**

See also: