Headline, June26, 2013

'''SPYING FROM - THE DASHBOARD'​''

The World it seems has an insatiable appetite for spying. Parents spying on their children, children spying on their parents, friends spying on friends, states spying on other nations, teachers spying on their pupil,.........on and on and on. The world, the society, excels at only one thing: to always take things to extremes. And now, not to miss out, here, read  this............

For those trying to save fuel there is hypermiling, in which the really dedicated try to use less than 4.5 liters/100 Km,  -ie, travel more than 80 miles on a gallon, in a car that under normal use might do only half as well. Apart from driving very slowly and trying not to use the brakes, which dissipates energy, hypermilers employ other tricks, such as wiring the fuel injectors up to lights mounted on the dashboard so they can see whether or not they are squirting fuel into the cylinders.

Although this is all too much trouble for most motorists, the hypermilers do have a point : driving technique plays a big part in how much fuel a car consumes. Now various devices are being used to help reach more moderate ways of driving economically. Not surprisingly, companies that operate fleet of cars and trucks are among the users of fuel-saving ''eco-assist'' systems. The most popular of these GPS units that use live traffic info and other data, such as weather and past trends, to plot not the fastest but the most economical route to a destination at a particular time.

According to ta Californian research firm, fewer than 1% of the new cars have such ''eco-routing'' systems fitted, but expects by 2020 a third will. At the same time interest in other devices that go beyond a simple fuel economy meter and provide more info about drivers behaviour. One such is used by Masternaut Three X, a British company that specialises in vehicle tracking. It taps into the engine management system which, because of the increasing amount of electronics used in cars, contains data that can be analysed to monitor such things such as excessive revving and harsh braking.

This information can then be shown as series of warnings on the dashboard and is monitored by fleet managers. Firms using such systems say they can yield fuel savings of around 10% a year. As well as discovering those with the heaviest feet on the accelerator pedal who could do with retraining, this can also help reduce accidents.

''There is a correlation between driving efficiently and safely,'' says Dan Steere, chief executive of Green Road. For instance, driving more smoothly by anticipating manoeuvres and then braking and accelerating lightly not only uses less fuel but also tends to make drivers more alert to avoiding potential accidents.Many companies can now analyse the data on the fly, and can determine how the vehicle is being driven and the results shown to the driver as green, amber and red LEDs.

For Fleet cars, the data can also be relayed to the control centre, so that BIG BROTHER can tick off offending drivers. Spying it seems, may just, somehow, pay up for a good cause.

Respectful dedication to all the drivers of the world: Drive safely.

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless