Improve gas mileage without damaging your car by using GPS

The most elegant way to improve effective gas mileage, i.e.
mimize fuel used to get from your starting point to your
destination, is to use a GPS to find the best way and to avoid
getting lost and driving unwanted detours. (:-)

Hans-Georg
--
No mail, please.

Satnav doesn't necessarily give you the best route for fuel consumption.

If you know your local area you will are likely to know the fastest
routes that avoid traffic bottlenecks, traffic lights, road calming etc.
This will not be the route shown on the Satnav unit which has no
knowledge of road usage and/or deliberate obstructions to the free flow
of traffic.

Here in the UK a SatNav could show the most direct and the fastest route
involves the M25 which is often the largest car park in the world! A
SatNav can avoid you getting lost but I would not give it any credit for
saving fuel.

--
Alan
news2006 amac f2s com

The single greatest missing feature in GPS is learning behavior. Your
GPS doesn't know that you don't want to drive the M25 (and, boy, you
aren't kidding about it being a parking lot), mine doesn't know that I
don't want to drive on I-25 in town for the same reason. Nor does it
know that you prefer to drive route 'x' because of the nice scenery,
etc.

I would dearly love a GPS that learned things like that. For
instance, if, when it routed you down a certain road 3 times, you
picked a parallel route each time, it would learn to prefer the road
you have taken. It would be nice not to be chided for taking the
'wrong' route to my sister's house every single time I go there.

In message
arthur.nudge@gmail.com wrote

Unfortunately this doesn't help when you need SatNav most - in an area
where you don't know the best route yourself. I used the example of a
local route because it demonstrates that the SatNav doesn't necessarily
know the fastest or fuel efficient route whereas local knowledge does.
My SatNav usually stays at home when I'm making local journeys.

--
Alan
news2006 amac f2s com

Alan wrote:


I wholeheartedly agree. I have friends here who insist *their* satnav
device is the best because you can select between "shortest" and "fastest" route.

Never mind the fact that it insists on routing you over Parramatta Road in
Sydney Australia. Very nice, except that in peak hour, it turns into a 20Km
long parking lot.

Even better, the "fast" option is the M4 freeway that at least in part runs
parallel with Parramatta Road, is ALSO a parking lot during peak hour. With
no option of getting off.

The funnest part of all this (for me!) is that all these guys are locals who
have lived in Sydney all their lives, and ALREADY know this.

You *CAN* teach an old dog new tricks, but at least the dog has the good
sense to know that scratching its butt the old way is still the best...

I love technology. I accept it wholeheartedly. I also love the fact that I
know when to take advantage of it - and when not to.
--
Linux Registered User # 302622