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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Back-Seat Driver in Your Dashboard

  • EYES ON THE ROAD

  • OCTOBER 26, 2011

  • The Back-Seat Driver in Your Dashboard

    New Interactive Features Are Aimed at Making Efficient Motoring Fun Like a Video Game

    [EYESROAD] Hyundai
    Hyundai's Veloster features a fuel-economy game that awards points for efficient driving. Scores can be shared with other drivers.
    Remember when Mom or Dad would nag you about wasting gas by driving too fast? Now your car can do it for them.
    Joe White on Lunch Break looks at how car makers are developing and installing new technology designed to coach you to drive more efficiently. Put simply, it's like having your back seat driving mom built into the car. But there are twists.
    Technology designed to coach you toward a more efficient style of driving is showing in many new cars. Options run the gamut from simple displays of fuel consumption, to interactive video games, to a gas pedal that actually pushes back when you stomp it.
    Auto makers view these features as lures for younger, cash-conscious and tech-savvy buyers. They might also help car makers meet coming federal fuel-efficiency standards. Research indicates these electric noodges can make a significant dent in fuel consumption, if drivers actually follow the advice the systems give them.
    Car makers are treading carefully. They want to engage their customers in the effort to conserve oil, but they don't want to irritate them and don't want to compromise safety by making eco-driving displays too distracting. Most of these technologies can be ignored or turned off if drivers choose.
    Hyundai
    Hyundai's Veloster
    At the far end of the in-car coaching spectrum is Nissan Motor Corp.'s Infiniti and its "Eco Pedal." It is a gas pedal that, in "Eco" mode, gently pushes back against your foot when the car's computers decide you're romping too aggressively on the accelerator. The brand began offering it as part of a $3,000 optional "technology package" with other advanced safety systems. About a fifth of the M-line buyers get the technology package, which also will be offered on the 2013 JX luxury crossover, due to be debuted in November, Infiniti says.
    Ford
    The Lincoln MKZ hybrid.
    Ford
    A gauge in the Lincoln MKZ hybrid features growing vines and leafs to reward drivers visually for efficient motoring.
    Hyundai Motor Co.'s sporty new 2012 Veloster three-door coupe has a fuel-economy game programmed into the screen that also displays the car's location, onboard entertainment and telecommunications. The "Blue Max" program measures the car's fuel economy every 10 minutes and displays a score. Drivers can share their score with other Veloster owners using the car's Blue Link wireless link.
    Fuel economy is important to the Veloster's young, target buyers, says Hyundai Motor America's senior manager for product planning, Brandon Ramirez. "Gen Y is into gaming," he says, which is why they chose a videogame format. Although the car just came out, Veloster owners are already comparing their scores in an online forum.
    It wouldn't be the first time drivers have turned trimming fuel use into a game: Some owners of hybrids and other cars compete with themselves and each other by "hypermiling," using various techniques to cut gasoline usage.
    Ford Motor Co. uses images of a plant that grows as drivers motor more efficiently in its Fusion Hybrid model. And Toyota's Prius and Camry hybrids offer detailed, displays of real-time fuel economy.
    Auto makers are experimenting with these features in part because future federal fuel-economy regulations could give them valuable credits under the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, rules for installing them. And researchers have found that gentle nagging by coaching systems works.
    Nissan
    Infiniti's M-series
    Nissan
    The gas pedals in Infiniti's M-series cars gently push back if stomped on when the optional 'Eco' mode is engaged.
    Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have been experimenting with ways to give drivers instantaneous feedback on their driving efficiency for about five years. UC Riverside researchers equipped the cars of about 20 people with devices that gave them information about their real-time miles per gallon. Seeing that information led to savings ranging from 5% to 15%, researchers say.
    Now, the researchers are embarking on a larger, three-year study, funded with $1.2 million from the Department of Energy. It's aimed at finding how much drivers can save if they have detailed information on the most fuel-efficient route to a destination—based on traffic and road conditions—coupled with coaching technology giving drivers instantaneous performance feedback.
    Savings "could go up to 30% under ideal scenarios," says Kanok Boriboonsomsin, one of the researchers on the project. It's a worthy goal, as boosting a car's mpg by 30% through hardware changes—lighter materials, new transmissions, or tiny engines—can be expensive.
    Still, the word "ideal" is important: Ideal conditions for driving in a fuel-saving manner aren't easy to find or sustain.
    I took a spin in one of the UC Riverside's test vehicles—a heavily modified Nissan Altima bristling with computers and antennae. Accelerating out of the parking lot, my real-time mpg sank well below the roughly 20-mpg target for city driving on the screen.
    Things improved coasting downhill, but when I accelerated up the on-ramp to merge with traffic, my real-time fuel economy dipped below 10 mpg.
    Michael Todd, a UC Riverside researcher who chaperoned my drive, says mashing the accelerator to get on a freeway can overwhelm the car's exhaust-scrubbing systems. So, not only is the car burning a lot of fuel, but it's adding a bigger-than-average load to air pollution.
    The message from the UC Riverside data is that relatively small changes in behavior can produce fairly substantial reductions in fuel consumption.
    The overall problem, Mr. Todd says, is that "most people aren't taught how to conserve fuel" when they learn to drive.

    Friday, October 14, 2011

    The Imported Sports Car

    The work of a certain timid but thorough lawyer was valued for its precision, so soon he was making money to buy himself a nice imported sports car.

    Not long afterwards he had the misfortune to get lost in the worst part of town, and when he stopped at a red light a huge, mean son-of-a bitch hauled him out of the driver’s seat.

    Drawing a circle around him on the pavement, the hoodlum told him not to set foot out of it unless he wanted the crap beat out of him. The delinquent proceeded to demolish the car, starting with the headlights and windows, when he heard the lawyer giggling.

    He moved on to the body and engine, but in between crashes he couldn’t help hearing gales of laughter.


    Finally, crowbar in hand, he came over to his victim and demanded, “What you laughing about? Your fancy car’s never gonna run again.”

    “So?” the lawyer gasped helplessly, tears running down his face. “Ever since you started tearing up my car, I’ve been stepping in and out of this circle, in and out, in and out…”