Fleet & Savings Inputs
Annual Savings vs. Time in Platoon (per truck)
About the Savings Estimates
The default fuel savings and emissions percentages used in this calculator are grounded in a combination of public research and the specific findings from this project's deep learning model.
Literature Baseline
For 2-truck platoons, a conservative baseline of 6.0% fuel savings is used, which aligns with published NREL, Caltrans, and USDOT reports. These studies show typical fleet-level savings ranging from 5-7%. These reports also show that 55.7% of all classifiable miles driven were platoonable.
Sources:
McAuliffe, B., et al. (2018). Influences on Energy Savings of Heavy Trucks Using CACC. NREL Report 70868. PDF
Caltrans. (2019). Truck Platooning: Assessment of Technology... (Report CA18-2623). PDF
USDOT. (2018). Analysis of a Truck Platooning Prototype... Link
Model-Derived & Emissions
For 3-truck platoons, this calculator defaults to 12.2% savings. This is not a literature value; it is the direct, measured result from this project's CNN→GRU model when analyzing highway segments. This higher value demonstrates the model's ability to uncover more optimistic savings potential under specific, ideal platooning conditions.
CO2 Emissions Source:
U.S. EPA. (2024). Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle. The factor of 22.4 lbs CO₂ per gallon of diesel is derived from the EPA's stated CO2 emissions from a gallon of diesel: 10,180 grams CO2/ gallon. Link