[LINK] 'Smart' cars as fuel-efficient as hybrids
Richard Chirgwin
rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au
Sun May 13 16:31:14 AEST 2007
David Boxall wrote:
> <http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1918364.htm>
>
> ... 'intelligent' cars are conventional vehicles fitted with sensors
> and receivers called telematics, which work in a network, swapping
> information about the traffic ahead.
>
> This traffic information is then relayed to the car to stop the
> vehicle or slow it down so that the ride is smooth, avoiding the
> stop-start phenomenon that drains fuel.
> ...
> They calculated that a hybrid version of the car would deliver fuel
> economy of 15-25% over the unconverted vehicle.
>
> But this saving was matched when the benchmark car was fitted with
> basic telematics that predicted traffic flows as little as seven
> seconds ahead, as determined by Australian driving conditions.
> ...
> If the predictability was boosted to 180 seconds, the
> newly-intelligent car was 33% more fuel-efficient than when it was
> unconverted.
>
And therefore, I suppose, since a hybrid uses petrol as well, it could
be made more efficient by the same techniques...
RC
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