Driving with the Eco Driving Indicator: Helping You Get Better Fuel Economy

 

Drivers of a certain age may remember the vacuum gauge. This was a dash-mounted instrument, often an aftermarket part, that was connected via a tube to a motor vehicle’s intake manifold. It measured, and displayed, the amount of vacuum present in the intake tract of the vehicle’s engine.

High vacuum was good, and low vacuum was not so good, and here’s why: For intake vacuum to be high, the throttle must be closed, or nearly closed, restricting the flow of mixture into the cylinders. Translation: You weren’t allowing much fuel into the engine, so you were probably getting optimal MPG. When the throttle is opened, vacuum falls and more fuel is inhaled into the cylinders. When that happens, your vehicle’s fuel economy also falls.

So economy-minded drivers used vacuum gauges as a way to help them optimize their vehicle’s fuel usage.

Today, of course, with all the electronics and computer controls on motor vehicles, there’s a better way. To see this better way, plant yourself in one of the seats of a Toyota vehicle with Hybrid Synergy Drive. When you do that, you’ll find the system’s Hybrid Vehicle System Indicator on the instrument panel and in the center display.

The Hybrid Vehicle System Indicator serves roughly the same purpose that a vacuum gauge served – it helps you drive efficiently. But it provides much more information than a simple analog gauge ever could.

The systems work differently in different models – for instance, the version in the Prius is different from the version in the Camry hybrid, and they’re both different from the version in the Highlander hybrid. But in spite of those differences, they have the same fundamental purpose – they help maximize driving efficiency.

Because the Hybrid Vehicle System Indicator is so effective, we’re embarking on a plan to incorporate similar indicators in all of our vehicles, be they hybrid or non-hybrid. In conventional, non-hybrid vehicles, these indicators will be called Eco Driving Indicators. We’re making this move because we’ve found that when hybrid drivers use their Hybrid Vehicle System Indicators, their driving habits change as the system provides feedback on efficiency. And as driving habits change, drivers could experience estimated improvements of from 5% to 10% in fuel economy.

At present, the plan is to include Eco Driving Indicators on mostl next-generation Toyota, Lexus and Scion models. Just what the Indicator will look like in each model hasn’t yet been determined. That will be decided by designers, planners and engineers. So it’s far too early to show you photos or drawings.

But generally, the Eco Driving Indicator would include an Eco Zone Display, which would indicate the throttle opening and whether the driver is driving efficiently. It also would include, for automatic-transmission-equipped vehicles, an Eco Lamp that would illuminate if the driver drives efficiently enough to stay within the “Eco Zone,” and that would, for manual-transmission-equipped vehicles, illuminate at the optimal shift point. Finally, it would include an Average Fuel Consumption Meter to provide the average fuel-economy number since the vehicle’s last fueling or system reset.

The Hybrid Vehicle System Indicator would include the same basic functions as the Eco Driving Indicator. But it also would include a Power Meter to display system output and regeneration power levels, and a Consumption Display that would include information such as Energy Collection, Average MPG, Instant MPG and Cruising Range.

We’ve learned that as we work to make our vehicles more efficient, we also can work to make our drivers more efficient. These Eco displays should go a long way toward helping us do that. Think of the system as a vacuum gauge with smarts.

~ Contributed by Jon F. Thompson, Corporate Communications

Comments

[richard schumacher]

An instantaneous MPG display would be much more helpful to most drivers than an "ECO zone" idiot light or a throttle opening indicator.

[driving courses]

Have you done eye tracking research to ensure that economy-minded drivers are not spending too much time concentrating on fuel economy rather than the business of driving the car safely?

[Mike Aquino]

Great, but take the EDI just one more step.

Allow the driver to enter a fuel cost at each fill-up. A Trip Cost Indicator would then tell the driver just how much each trip cost (this could reset automatically each time the engine is turned on.) The indicator should have large lit numerals with dollar and cents signs.

This should sure discourage trivial trips - especially if your teenager has to pay for them!

The url below links to an article in today's NYT shows how well consumers respond to conservation given appropriate feedback and an easy way to adjust their usage. There may be some other ideas in the article that Toyota can apply to the EDI.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/
technology/10energy.html

[StandardDetroitTalk]

I'm of two minds on this:
[richard schumacher] mentioned that an idiot light doesn't give enough info.

It seems that [Mike Aquino]'s answer provides the most painfully accurate information that matters:

"How much is my lead foot costing me at this exact moment, on this trip?".

I'm sure if I had that information *while* I drove, I'd be thinking "OUCH!" and laying off the jackrabbit starts.

Combining Richard and Mike's ideas leads me to the "more info is better" line of thinking.

But in listening to [driving courses], I worry that people would sometimes gaze hypnotically at the dollar (or MPG) figure as it ticks away pennies.

How about this: a (USER initiated) mode which uses a voice to chime out money in increments of either "whole dollars" or "ten cents". Ie: Every dime (or dollar) spent prompts a voice (male or female, you choose):
" $17.00 spent on this trip so far. Averaging 16 cents per mile. You are [improving]"

This, with user settable 'verbose' and 'succinct' modes for people who just want to hear:

" $17.00"

Or an idiot light which glows brighter when your fuel consumption changes (but simply shows "on/off" for night driving, because at night changing lights become a distraction). This would give more info about "how good/bad I'm doing", rather than a "yes/no" "on/off" light.

That's another way to get more info from the corner of your eye, without gazing at numbers which must be 'read'.