'Road Trains' To Reduce Emissions?

Greetings,

Continuing from my post about how electric cars could increase carbon emissions. I'm interested to by the technology being developed by EU research teams for the introduction of 'road trains'. The premise behind the research is that if vehicles could be remotely controlled by a leading vehicle, they could drive much closer and reduce the amount of air turbulence and resistance they experience, and in theory reduce energy consumption and emissions...

One concern is whether or not having large numbers of vehicles driving in close proximity could prove potentially dangerous under emergency braking situations? I'm not sure how this could reduce the kind of congestion we experience in Greater Manchester and most other urban centres but perhaps those insistent on road travel matched with these boffins will work out to defy the arguably inevitable logic of congestion charging schemes (sigh).

Personally I'd rather see more focus being made on the development of hydrogen vehicles than trying to reduce the outputs of fossil fuelled vehicles... At least there is now a national campaign encouraging drivers to reduce their driving "by 5 miles a week" - every little counts?

Onwards & upwards!

Lucy.