Fundamental study on effect of preceding vehicle information on fuel consumption reduction of a vehicle group

It is a concern that eco-driving vehicles, because their driving behavior differs from other vehicles due to e.g. e-start, may inhibit smooth traffic flow. Therefore, it is necessary to study the cooperative eco-driving done by a vehicle group, putting “vehicle-to-vehicle communication” and “road-to-vehicle communication” into perspective. Based on these factors, this study aimed to: 1) Analyze fuel consumption rates and driving behaviors of more than one vehicle following an Eco-Driving vehicle. 2) Examine the effect of information on the fuel consumption rate of the preceding vehicles on the following vehicles. As a result, the following findings were obtained: 1) By providing information to multiple following vehicles, the fuel consumption rate of the second vehicle was not lowered, while that of the third one was. 2) It is possible that, when information on fuel consumption of a preceding vehicle is provided to the following one, an inter-vehicular distance is shortened during deceleration to contribute to smooth traffic flow. From the above results, it is suggested that, when targeting a vehicle group, sharing the information on preceding vehicles is effective.