A Smart Meter (For The Car)

Jake de Grazia - Contributing Writer
Posted on Thursday 11th February 2010
We've heard of thermostats that display the real time price of energy and train us to heat and cool more efficiently. But what about car cockpits that display driving efficiency and train us in hypermiling?

Hypermiling? Hypermiling. Driving so well, so fluidly, so in rhythm with the car's design that the car wastes no effort and, thus, wastes no fuel. Driving extremely efficiently.

Today's blog post on A Journey to Zero features a technology called GreenRoad...

The GreenRoad system uses wireless sensors, an accelerometer, GPS and customized algorithms to calculate everything from safety risks to the effect of various driving techniques on fuel consumption. Depending on the priorities that are set, the system lets the driver know in real time—via simple flash of a red, yellow or green light—whether they’re doing well or not.

GreenRoad works almost exclusively with fleets of vehicles at the moment, but, if their system works well - and, given that GreenRoad just added a new client, it looks like it does - then it won't be too long before we see similar systems available for all kinds of cars and drivers.

(In other, unrelated transportation news, Porsche announced today that it has a hybrid model too. It'll make its debut in March.)

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