So, you've a lead foot? What of it, right?
Honda's hoping to make that bad little habit vanish by using the tried and true guilt trip method, or more specifically, the Ecological Drive Assist System. For starters, the technology's ECON Mode works with the CVT and engine to "support more fuel-efficient driving." The real kicker, however, is the color-based "guidance function" -- drive like a granny, your speedo lights up green, drive a little wilder, and things get a bit blue, and if you toss fuel economy
to the wind and let 'er rip, expect a full-on blue screen and the voice of God to come thundering through your sound system instructing that those horses be held. The EDAS should appear in the automaker's Insight hybrid as early as Spring 2009, though there's no word if it'll be standard equipment on the rumored S3000.
posted Nov 26th 2008 9:50AM
I'm sorry Dave... I'm afraid I can't do that.
Exactly, but instead of just warning you with fuzzy colors, the car should actually reduce your speed, ie limit you to 50Km or when you are on the highway 60mph... this way no tickets and no speeding (unless you flip the overide switch)
Wouldn't red make more sense? Blue doesn't say change your ways. Blue says I am a winner and should drive faster.
Well, they picked Blue cuz its a windows console.... and if you go to fast the car will just BSOD and then you're screwed.
Red is reserved for danger (oil gone, water pressure low, brake on, door open, etc), yellow for caution (tire pressure low, etc). Blue, green, etc are okay for other.
The Flashpoint plan:
GREEN = highest MPG/ efficiency
YELLOW = moderate MPG / half of all cylinders are activated
ORANGE = Low MPG/ all cylinders are activated
RED = Lowest MPS/ all cylinders are activated
*car chimes* every 10 seconds when you exceed 70mph
@ Flashpoint
"car Chimes* every 10seconds"
That is R-e-t-a-r-d-e-d. No one would buy that.
no wonder it is called the "flashpoint plan"
Hmm - A GREEN light appears in front of the driver, and the driver accelerates, right through a RED TRAFFIC light, and turfs it in the intersection. Sounds smart.
All this, and they for some reason avoided the use of RED. BLUE is positive, not bad. Unless you BSOD of course.
Blue is my favorite colour.
Blue makes me feel serene ;)
Mh, but I don't like green, so I guess I have to go faster!^^
Jeremy Clarkson: COLORRRRRRRRR!
James May: I think I know what to do at this point. COLOOORRRRRRR!
That was such a great episode! While I can't say I was taken aback by how the Veyron did around the test track, it's still quite a surprise.
Then again, I've always been a fan of Pagani :]
Actually, wouldn't Clarkson say, "COLOURRRRRRRRR"?
Zing!
That's true; only a wannabe cowboy like Hammond would say it without the "u."
I love it when they do their gigantic road trips around America :]
Crap, you've got us. Sure he would.
I was kind of surprised by the Veyron, I didn't expect it to perform that well... I was expecting Enzo'ish or GT-R'ish times.
Great idea! Now how do I disable ECON mode?
You must do this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc8BUSOPfcY
I'd rather take public transport than drive at a steady 56mph if I just wanted to get from A to B. Cars are becoming more and more unexciting these days.
Yeah, people die less too.
Oi!
Honda!
NO!
Speedos should be ROUND
They should STAY ROUND
And they'll BE ROUND FOREVERRRR
In a Bugatti Veyron it turns up the music full blast and starts playing "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC
Oh and the green mode in the Veyron plays "Loser" by Beck.
Brilliant! That might even work on me...
That's all I need is God yelling at me, my wife is bad enough..
I hope this thing here understands that accelerating fast and then keeping that speed is more economic than to drive like a granny. If grannies accelerate slowly that is.
Why was he low ranked? It's true. Accelerate as hard as you can (without revving too high) and then use the lowest possible gear.
forget fuel economy, it would be much more useful for the thing to use GPS and a service that knows the speed limit of the road you are currently on and turn red when you are over the speed limit. helps a lot in areas near highway ramps and resedential areas where it is not always posted often.
I agree with you. The speed limit reminder would be much better than having a machine try to "shame" you into being green. But regardless, I don't ever want a computer ordering me around, anytime, anywhere. Particularly in a car that I already paid way too much for. Screw you SkyNet...
Yeah. Like my GPS, which always gets it wrong (old data). And I'm using the latest maps. So, nice idea, but wouldn't work.
Honda cars sorta have this function now. You constantly see your MPG while you're driving so when you take off from a red light or are getting onto the freeway the mileage is low. When you're coasting along or paying attention it's way high. I think if they replaced the MPG w/ this I'd be just fine.
I hope the speeding color is red. I would speed all the time to see the red glow.
I think the civic si always shows it red.
Why the big 3 cant think of stuff like this, Why
Ummm, Ford announced a very similar system a while ago: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/29/video-ford-smartgauge-with-ecoguide-in-action/
They should have made the "bad" color pink instead of blue. As it currently is driving "bad" seems to be more of a goal...especially since I'd rather have blue up there than green.
pictures of nude fat chicks when you speed. that would help.
You can always close your eyes. That wouldn't help.
But I get horny when seeing nude fat chicks..
They still make the Insight?
to hell with blue, I've gone straight to plaid before.
My stupid Sanyo Gorilla GPS does that. It's so lame. Whenever I go over 50 km/h, it turns orange and shows a cartoony orange leaf crying. WTF. Try going less than 50 km/h on Japanese freeways...some little kei car will pass you as it points and laughs.
A digital speedometer is fine if you still have a large analog dial display. The Honda Civic has only the big digital display and that is one reason why I didn't buy one. Your brain spends too much time interpreting the digital speed display. With an anolog dial you only have to briefly glance at it, especially when trying to maintain a constant speed with the cruise control off.
Look at airplane cockpit instrument displays. Even with the all-glass cockpits they still have analog dial displays on them for important engine parameters.
Wow, so... people in the Stock Class in the NASA Racing and SCCA are going to be pissed if they choose these Honda's for their cars.
I like the new Ford Fusion's dual full color instrument panel better. Plus, the growing leaves is WAY cooler. :)
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/29/video-ford-smartgauge-with-ecoguide-in-action/
Cars schmars. Get a bike.
Bikes smikes. Get a job so you can afford a car, hippie.
Have another beer
I respect your wantingness to be "green," and wish I could join you in your quest, but I am currently unable to pedal the 50 miles a day I drive to and from work... especially in the mountains of New York state, while it's constantly snowing.
Dude, as much as I love bikes (weekend fun) it's just no good for cycling to work and back every day. I know I've done it before. And when it rains/snows it is not fun at all.
Car wins!
Why do they need to have the whole console turn a color? It would be way to distracting at night. My mom's 88' SL560 had a small guage that moved up and down (green to red) based on how hard you pressed the gas pedal. This would not be nearly as distracting. Try turning up the brightness all the way at night in a new civic and you will see what I mean, good luck keeping track of your lane.
The fat chicks is funny. That just might work for males and females. It would at least work better than colors as if one is color blind who knows what you'll see. Regardless, it is likely that you know your going too fast anyway. You already have the speedometer. What would really work is the combination of the suggestion about using a GPS and a service to have the actual speed limit known to the car. Then, when you exceed it the outside of your car changes to the color that indicates speeding or shows fat people or whatever. Then cops wouldn't need a radar gun, they could just snap a photo of you and you would be "busted." Sweet!
what next?
color coded speed limit signs?
This is freaking awesome! As long as it comes with an OFF switch, I'm sold!
OK, this was a mistake in the 80s when the digital dash on a Subaru Loyale had a little black bar that flashed when you were going over 55, I believe. The solution... electrical tape. I hope there's a way to disable nagging features... I would tend to lean toward a lack of lots of bright colors... I mean, a gree screen right below your vision of the road... would that possibly counter the red from a stoplight or brake lights long enough to cause accidents?
I remember my father's old Buick stationwagon (1975?) had a knob to set a buzzer to go off if you went over the speed that you set. I always thought it was a good idea to help prevent speeding tickets n save gas.
I now use my TomTom and set a top speed alarm.
What if you are blue/green color blind??? :)
already implemented in the camry hybrid!!
and the Lexus IS except that you determine when the colors change. I have mine set to change to orange at 80mph and red at 100mph.
I had that on my 59 buick green then yellow then red - so what didnt work then wont work now
YAAAY! Metric system FTW!
So if I go 150 down the interstate will the thing do the lightspeed effect from star Wars?
No big deal. My 1959 Olds had a speedometer that changed colors too. 0 to 35 was green; 36 to 70 was yellow and above that was red. It was a bar running underneath the numerals that was actually a rotating drum. Late in the Olds' life, the spring which controlled the drum broke and my brother and I used to have a ball getting the speedo to bounce.
As to gas mileage, at 27.9, who cared?
In India, a lot many vehicles have a colour coded strip that runs along the outer circumference of the speedometer which indicates the fuel efficiency. This serves the same purpose ( green good and red bad ).
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autobloggreen.com/media/2008/11/honda-ecological-drive-assist-system01.jpg
At least there is a button to turn it off! :)
I love HONDA!