This paper discussed the conditions under which longitudinal disturban
ces in strings of coupled vehicles can be made to attenuate as they tr
avel upstream. The ''slinky'' effect is defined as the condition where
these disturbances are amplified, a condition that can lead to collis
ions among upstream vehicles. Input/output linearization is applied to
linearize the spacing error to throttle dynamics. Well known linear n
orm relationships are then applied to investigate the ''slinky'' effec
t. It is shown that broadcasting the velocity and acceleration of the
lead vehicle to all vehicles in the string is sufficient to eliminate
the slinky effect.