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STEP on the gas if you want to cut your fuel consumption. That鈥檚 some of the
advice you鈥檒l get from a new dashboard device that tells you how to drive more
efficiently. It could reduce your fuel costs by a sixth鈥攁nd you鈥檒l still
get from A to B as quickly as before, say Dutch and Swedish transport
experts.

People often believe that you have to drive slowly to be fuel-efficient, but
that鈥檚 not the case, says Mark Dougherty of the School of Transportation and
Society in Borl盲nge, Sweden, which supervised the fuel-efficiency project.
鈥淭hey think to accelerate gently will get a better fuel consumption,鈥� he says.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 basically wrong.鈥�

This fallacy was the idea behind a host of dashboard devices that appeared in
the 1970s in response to the oil crises. They included crude miles-per-gallon
meters, for example, but they only made tiny improvements in fuel efficiency,
says Dougherty.

The problem was that such gadgets didn鈥檛 take into account the context of
each driving manoeuvre. So the new device tries to offer both tactical and
strategic advice on your driving, rather than just flashing a light at you when
you over-rev the engine. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 just tell you that you drove badly, it
tells you how to improve,鈥� says Dougherty.

The system was developed at the University of Twente in Enschede, the
Netherlands, by Mascha van der Voort and Martin van Maarseveen. It monitors
speed, steering angle, clutch, braking force and gas pedal position. For each
manoeuvre, such as accelerating, braking and turning, there is an optimal fuel
consumption, explains Dougherty. By studying the behaviour of the car, the
device can work out whether your input is fuel-efficient each time you perform a
manoeuvre.

A display on the dashboard then offers bits of advice such as: 鈥淪hift earlier
from second to third gear鈥�, 鈥淗arsh braking manoeuvre!鈥� or even 鈥淎ccelerate more
rapidly鈥�. But it also analyses groups of manoeuvres in context to give you more
general advice, such as recommending that you try to keep more distance from
other cars so that you don鈥檛 have to brake so often.

Rather than distracting you during manoeuvres, the system waits until later
before offering suggestions. In simulated driving tests the researchers found
that there was an overall reduction in fuel consumption of 16 per cent,
considerably better than the 9 per cent reduction drivers managed without help.
鈥淎nd in the field trials there was no difference whatsoever in journey times,鈥�
says Dougherty.

鈥淕iven that cars are engineered so efficiently these days, driver behaviour
is the big variation in fuel consumption,鈥� says John Stubbs of Britain鈥檚
Automobile Association. People think they can hear when it鈥檚 time to change
gears, he says, but to do so efficiently requires great skill. 鈥淓ven trained
rally drivers find it difficult.鈥�

鈥淭he engine operates at peak efficiency when it鈥檚 at about two-thirds its
power output,鈥� says Dougherty. 鈥淭he bottom line is: to get better efficiency you
should change up a gear earlier, at relatively low revs per minute,鈥� he
explains. 鈥淏ut don鈥檛 be afraid to give it some gas.鈥�