I'm Being Trained by my Car
Over the weekend, I bought my first new car, a 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid. I've been thinking about a hybrid for quite a while but I'm quite tall and the really small vehicles such as the Honda Insight didn't look too appealing. I test-drove the Camry a couple of times and had serious misgivings about the size. However, once I found a model without a moonroof, I got the headroom I wanted and the seat behind me was usable once again. All obstacles cleared!
The thing I find most interesting about the car is all the cues it gives you about the efficiency of your driving. There is a big gauge to the left of the speedometer that ranges from 0 MPG to 60MPG and even further on to the "E Zone" The needle can swing dramatically, based on how you use the gas pedal and the terrain. It bums me out when I pull away from a light nice and easy, but still only manage to get 10MPG until I reach my cruising speed. I've also learned that maintaining a steady speed can be done on battery power alone, when crossing flat terrain. (Lesson learned: don't waste a good flat by accellerating through it.)
There is another display that shows a number of statistics about fuel consumption but they are a little longer-term than the MPG gauge. My favorite display is the Cruising Range one -- it's nice to see I can drive another 550 miles on a tank of gas! But the display I use most often is an animated display showing the tranfer of energy throughout the system. When the gas engine or the electric motor are powering the wheels, an arrow pulses from the engine and battery icons to the motor. When you decellerate, either by coasting or using the brakes, you're shown the transfer of energy back from the wheels to the battery. This is how I begin to understand what conserves energy and what consumes it. I wouldn't have guessed that the car can recapture energy just coasting down a small hill, but now I back off the accellerator until I reach the bottom. At the end of each trip, the display gives you the overall MPG for the trip. Any trip over 35MPG also garners you an "EXCELLENT!"
As I was considering all these gauges and displays, it occurred to me that most any vehicle could be fitted with these types of instruments. Drivers would then have accurate guidance on how to increase their fuel economy. For me, it's almost like a video game, albeit one without a lot of action. Rather than mash the accellerator, I attempt to finess better mileage by watching the gauges and reacting accordingly. It's something car makers should consider for future vehicles, hybrid or not. Training people to get even 10% better fuel economy would have a huge impact on emissions and oil dependency.