The leader vehicle is provided with navigational information, while the following vehicles are linked together via spring dynamics
Vehicle platooning relies heavily on sensors such as cameras and GPS as well as capabilities such as vehicle to vehicle communication (V2V) and a 3G/4G connectivity.
Vehicles use wireless communication to send information such as their speed, position and acceleration to other vehicles in the platoon, who then, use this information to adjust their speed accordingly.
Sensors are used for the vehicles to determine things like where they are, where have they been, where they are going, how are they going to get there, will they hit anything/ get hit and how can they avoid collisions.