Honda's new 5-passenger "Insight" hybrid just went on sale in Japan. The ¥1,890,000 (about $20,750) hatchback's 1.3l i-VTEC engine with Integrated Motor Assist features Honda's new Ecological Assist system that helps correct your wasteful driving habits. Eco Assist features an ECON mode (via dashboard button) that adjusts the engine output to conserve energy and increases regenerative recharging during deceleration. It also features Guidance and Scoring modes that
adjust the background color of the speedometer and presents more (or less) leaves on the
dashboard multi-information display to reflect your current level of fuel efficiency. The idea is simple: as your driving "improves" both your bank account and the environment will benefit. The Insight is expected to make its way to your local amber waves of grain or purple mountain majesty dealership in April, Europe in March. Skip ahead to 1:40 in the video posted after the break for the full Eco Assist rundown.
posted Feb 6th 2009 8:42AM
So... They turned it into a game? Those magnificent bastards!
The Fusion Hybrid by Ford which is already for sale employs such a feature on an lcd located on the instrument cluster.
Yeah...but Honda will still exist in 12 months.
Best headline ever
Instead of turning the console from blue to green, they could have put a pretty woman on the center console that gets more and more naked the greener you drive. You know, "incentive."
Better yet, have the car spit out cash when you drive greener. You know, "green."
"Car wrecks are on the rise, seemingly due to the new Honda Insight."
Honda really likes to implement nanny devices. Too bad they don't realize it's these nannies that will make sure my next vehicle isn't a Honda. I love almost everything about my Honda, EXCEPT for the nag devices. I weigh my sanity with greater value.
I have an '09 civic... and I fail to see any nagging... the only nagging that you can even get in this model is the EX with traction control.. that has a simple on/off switch.
however, all new hondas (at least the civics, I know for sure) have SVC (speed-sensitive volume control)...... so when I drive *MY* honda it makes the music louder as I go faster.
that's incentive. =D
oh.. I remembered the other nagging thing... the flashing seatbelt light/chime.... but I only notice it when it detects someone in the passenger seat that is stupid enough to leave their seatbelt off. you should have it on anyway.
dude , you can turn the feature off...
First off, most misleading headline ever; I hope the Honda Yakuza shows up at your door tonight Thomas. Secondly, your average driver has absolutely no concept of how much driving habits affect fuel efficiency. I was once told that my friend's girlfriend honestly believed the faster you drove on the interstate, the better your fuel efficiency, because you would spend less time driving. Short of teaching fuel efficiency in driver's ed, or making it required knowledge for a driving test, Honda has done the next best thing. Kudos
1. Seat belt nanny needn't be bothering me when I'm trying to back a trailer or boat. Nor should it be nagging you where it is not needed. Honda is not law enforcement. If "because you should be wearing your seatbelt" is a valid argument, then cars should be factory limited to 65mph by the same logic.
2. My GPS constant reminds me not to drive off a cliff or off closed bridges every time I turn on my car.
I'm pretty sure that I haven't seen a GPS system that DOESN'T have some sort of warning, disclaimer or "nag" screen upon start-up.
And every recent vehicle I have been in "nags" when someone undoes their seatbelt when the engine is running. My car also has nagging lights which tell me that I need to change the oil or have the emissions system checked out, when I have the passenger side airbag turned off, and when the right-rear door is ajar, when I've left the e-brake engaged, etc. Damn nagging car!
I didn't see anything in the video which suggested nagging. There is information presented to the driver to assist in more fuel-efficient driving. If that's not something that you already have an interest in, then you probably are not the Insight's target audience. (Which I, for one, am not.)
Honda are hardly a nanny company -- they make motorbikes and only recently pulled out of F1 for finance reasons. Plus, as it says in the summary, this is optional. Honda aren't forcing you to drive more efficiently, they just engaged their brains and figured that anyone who buys one of these new eco cars would probably find such a feature useful. Personally, I'd find such a feature a benefit even in a sports car -- not all of us want to waste fuel all the time, just occasionally.
I have an OCD envrionmentalist friend who drives a Prius - the speed limit - yeah, THAT guy.
If he had something like this, he'd rear-end vehicles in front of him every 5 minutes due to him being incapable of taking his eyes off the leaf display.
BTW, it it were truely a backseat hippie, those would be pot leaves. And it would divert more power to the phototron in the trunk.
Anyway, for NORMAL people, more information is usually better. I think most of us would take the leaf display under advisement but let traffic conditions dictate our following distances and other such safety margins with much greater weight when appropriate.
beware american friends, they are using LITERS and KILOMETERS as example ;)
Or you can stop being a fucking lily and drive a man's car (read: any car that doesn't soil the good name of motive power by being Hybrid). But I guess I'm just an enthusiast.
yee haw! no ur not an enthusiast... quite the opposite. Ur just a typical ignorant yokel still tragically unaware that hybrids can offer MORE power than a car with just a big ol' engine (take the Accord for instance) Have you ever seen the torque curve of an electric motor? ...Didn't think so
+1 cointreau - Electric motors will kick the crap out of gasoline motors once they become mainstream. Just watch.
So this new "feature" is equivalent to shifting my Prius into "B" for greater regenerative braking and less overall accelerating power? I mean, yeah, on the freeway if I drive like grandpa I can break 68mpg (74mpg if I find a rig and climb right up its butt into its draft); but seriously, I live in California where the de facto speed limit is 80. Now at those speeds the car gets about 46 mpg on level ground, but if you're like me and you enjoy acceleration too much, you can get the mileage as low as 36 mpg by driving like a teenager.
BTW, @Kent: You're right about the pot leaves here. I recall reading on a Cypress Hill album twelve years ago that, "An acre of hemp produces as much oxygen as five acres of trees."
I'm wondering when Honda will stop using old battery technology. That's been its downfall since the introduction of the hybrid Civic. Yes, it keeps costs down, but it's not nearly as energy-dense as the tech used in Toyota's system. That means to get the same amount of energy storage you need more weight.
Blah.
Ultimately it's not going to matter at all as we'll all be using proton polymer batteries that recharge as quickly as ultracaps and are not at all vulnerable to degradation or the memory effect. We just have to convince NEC to bring the tech to market-readiness.
Um, I don't think NEC need 'convincing' - if they have that kind of technology just waiting in the wings they stand to make many billions.
Presumably in actual fact it is just one of several possible future battery technologies which looks promising in the lab but needs an awful lot more (years of) work to get past critical problems. And also presumably, if there's any hope that it will succeed, they will be putting in that work...
Wow, they pretty much ripped all of this off from Ford's Fusion hybrid, even the grill. Replace the H with a blue oval and it's almost shocking! They even took the leaves concept, shameful.
And yet, they'll somehow make this vehicle heads and tails better than any pos that Ford pumps out. Why is that?
I think u got it backwards son! This form of the insight has been around for years, initially as a fuel cell prototype. If you think that honda has to take cues from ford.... hold on, FORD?! hahahahahahaha! oh man, that good. It's folks like you that have kept auto innovation in this country limited to stupid shit like refrigerated sun visors.
Son, Ford still spends waaaay more in R&D than Honda does. The Fusion hybrid will get more mpg than the Civic hybrid will, they have better clean diesel technology than Honda does, and are not seeking a bail out.
The reason American car manufacturers are screwed is because they've been building what big fat American consumers want, and not what skinny kids have been looking for. Now that the paradigm has changed GM and Chrysler are on the slow boat, but Ford's at least got the better Tech and capability of putting out.
But if you're serious about wanting to own a good, amazing mileage car - look up this AMERICAN company: Aperta motors!
Or hey, if that's not good enough for you, try this 80's style American car: Avion motors!
Why didn't the Amazing Super Califradictexpialodocious Magical Company Honda make that? Wow, it's like Honda doesn't have any more incentive to radically change the engineering of a vehicle anymore than the Big Three has had.
Grow up you wannabe left-wing liberal; you are a peon. -5 Bleeding Hearts points for you.
That would piss me off. I am paying for the gas, so you can keep your opinions to yourself Honda.
"It also features Guidance and Scoring modes that adjust the background color of the speedometer and presents more (or less) leaves on the multi-information display to reflect your current level of fuel efficiency. "
What language is this written in?
I like it, I get bored as hell driving so this would serve as a nice distraction. Wait that doesn't seem like a good thing now that I think about it.
It may seem odd, but the "nagging hippie" is actually a great idea.
I have a Prius, and one of the keys to better fuel economy for me was the readout you get displaying the instantaneous MPG and charts for how you did for the past half hour.
The data helps you learn efficient driving styles (like coasting, and adjusting speed to roll through green lights instead of stopping and starting), and motivates you to set goals to drive better.
Bring back the awsome 70 mpg Insight HONDA!!! I want my eco Insight, not another Prius.
Hybrid minivan, please.
I understand Japanese. One bit not translated was: "Our designers watch too much hentai, so couldnt be bothered designing a new shape. We just sorta copied the Prius. Now where's my Pokeball...I gotta catch 'em all!!"
How about from smoggy to clear? When driving like you have nothing but oil to burn the car fills up with smoke and when you drive efficiently it clears up. Sheer genius I tells you. Seriously Honda should ring me for my most magnificent input.
I want.