Techniques are disclosed to increase the safety of vehicles travelling in a vehicle platoon. These techniques include the utilization of a comprehensive safety framework such as a safety driving model (SDM) for the platoon control systems. In contrast to the conventional approaches, the use of the SDM model allows for platoon vehicle control systems to consider the acceleration/deceleration capabilities of the vehicles to calculate minimum safe longitudinal distances between the platoon vehicles. The disclosed techniques may utilize the periodicity of platoon messages as well as other parameters to improve upon platoon vehicle control and safety.