Method for transforming between a long vehicle combination and a platoon on the move

A method for transforming between a long vehicle combination and a platoon on the move, wherein the long vehicle combination comprises a plurality of vehicles mechanically coupled together one after the other, which method comprises the steps of:

• detecting that the long vehicle combination is approaching a first road section ahead, which first road section stipulates decoupling the vehicles of the long vehicle combination to form the platoon;
• automatically decoupling the vehicles from each other while the vehicles are in motion to form the platoon before reaching the first road section;
• the platoon driving through the first road section;
• detecting a second road section which stipulates coupling together the vehicles of the platoon to form the long vehicle combination;
• a vehicle in the platoon immediately ahead of a following vehicle of said the platoon sending information to the following vehicle via wireless vehicle-to-vehicle communication, which information indicates the position and speed of a rear automatic coupling device of the vehicle immediately ahead;
• based at least on the position and speed indicated in the sent information, autonomously driving the following vehicle so that the rear automatic coupling device of the vehicle immediately ahead of the following vehicle gets within an operational range of a front coupling element of the following vehicle;
• while in motion and when the rear automatic coupling device is within the operational range, the following vehicle automatically adjusting a front coupling device including said front coupling element so that the position of the front coupling element matches the position of the rear automatic coupling device as indicated in the sent information;
• and automatically coupling together the following vehicle and the vehicle immediately ahead while the vehicles are in motion to form at least a part of the long vehicle combination.