A contract has been awarded to the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) to carry out the tests of vehicle “platoons”. Up to three lorries will travel in formation, with acceleration and braking controlled by the lead vehicle. But the head of the AA said platoons raised safety concerns. In the platoons, the lead vehicle will be controlled by a human driver and will communicate with the rest of the convoy wirelessly. The following vehicles will be instructed to accelerate and brake by the lead vehicle, allowing the lorries to drive closer together than they could with human drivers.