Match these words from the text with their definitions. When in doubt, get some clues from the text below.

to tailgate   a highway   to ease (up)   to clog   a vehicle   to overtake   brake   steering   to cover   steady

a piece of equipment that makes a vehicle go more slowly or stop   to work or do something less hard, to improve   to get in front of a moving vehicle   a wide main road that joins one town to another   to block, to stop, to make difficult   a machine with an engine that is used to transport people or things   a part of a vehicle that allows you to control its direction   to follow somebody closely   stable, not changing   to travel a particular distance

Reading (2)

1. Read the text from Euronews, 29^th May 2012 and answer the comprehension questions after the text.

Volvo's driverless SARTRE project takes on public roads of Spain

If there were no drivers inside cars, roads would be safer – well, at least that’s what Volvo believes. Tailgating on the highway at high speeds is quite dangerous. However, according to Volvo carmaker, it would be the way forward in easing up traffic jams on the highways given the fact that a lot of motorists clog the road while keeping too big a distance up ahead. The Swedish carmaker known for its innovative approach towards high level of safety –has come up with another revolutionary safety research program, the ‘Safe Road Trains for the Environment’ Project or SARTRE.

“If we had ‘trains’ of self-driven cars on the highways, the cars would follow each other and wouldn’t block the road while overtaking or keeping too far apart. Moreover, it would allow drivers to spend their time doing other things while cameras, laser sensors and radars monitored vehicles and controlled the brakes and the steering movements accordingly,” says one of the Volvo officials.

Volvo tested its SARTRE project on the public roads of Spain. The project involved a ‘road train’ that included one leading truck and a convoy of 3 Volvos trailing behind, namely the XC60, V60 and S60. The cars followed the truck (relying entirely on radar, cameras and laser sensors) at a steady 85kph while keeping a distance of 6 metres between each other. The vehicles successfully covered a distance of about 200 kms along the Spanish motorways with other motorists.

"We covered 200 kilometres in one day and the test turned out well. We're really delighted," says Linda Wahlström, project manager for the SARTRE project at Volvo Car Corporation. "We've learnt a whole lot during this period. People think that autonomous driving is science fiction, but the fact is that the technology is already here. From the purely conceptual viewpoint, it works fine and it would be great if road trains were around in one form or another," she added.

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