Patent ID: 8649941

Claim:
A method for operating a heating, ventilation, and air condition (HVAC) system in a host vehicle based on a following distance between the host and a preceding vehicle, the method comprising: receiving a preceding vehicle communication including a low-emission indication; determining whether the preceding vehicle is a low-emission vehicle based on the low-emission indication of the preceding vehicle communication; detecting the following distance between the host vehicle and another the preceding vehicle; operating an on-board control device to control the HVAC system in the host vehicle to automatically operate in a first mode while the following distance is detected as being greater than a threshold distance regardless of the low-emission indication, automatically operate in the first mode while the preceding vehicle is determined to be a low-emission vehicle regardless of the following distance, and automatically operate in a second mode while the following distance is detected as being less than or equal to the threshold distance and the preceding vehicle is not detected to be a low-emission vehicle; operating a cooperative adaptive cruise control system to form a cooperative platoon of at least the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle and set a desired following distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle; and automatically operating the cooperative adaptive cruise control system of the host vehicle to present a suggested order, the suggested order including the low-emission vehicles of the cooperative platoon in leading positions of the cooperative platoon.