FuelClinic.com takes 2nd Place at the Intelligent Transportation Society (ITS) Congestion Challenge
A few days ago the results of the global Intelligent Transportation Society (ITS) Congestion Challenge were announced at the VenCorps blog (registration required), and we were pleased to learn that FuelClinic.com had won 2nd place from a starting field of over 90 competitors:
The winners of the ITS Congestion Challenge were announced today in front of global transportation leaders at the ITS World Congress in Stockholm, Sweden. iCarpool won first place for $50,000 and 50,000 points, FuelClinic.com took second place for 25,000 points and iCone secured third place for 10,000 points.
These three companies will join the VenCorps portfolio, called the Launchpad. They will be able to use their points to grow by incentivizing our community to help them solve business problems big and small.
Judging from the results released at VenCorps, our little community turned out in force to compete against some very well established competition. Taking a look at the graph published at the VenCorps blog, you can see that iCarpool was simply unbeatable in this competition, able to motivate a virtual tsunami of voters for their cause.
Rachel and I would like to send a heart-felt “Thank You!” to each of you who took the time to lend your support for FuelClinic, and who believe in our efforts to improve our roads and highways through advanced driver education.
A 1st place finish included a $50K seed-funding award, unfortunately there was no such award for 2nd place in this contest. We continue to seek seed-funding to turn our prototype system into a commercial application. We continue to work to meet our shared goals of helping people save money, reduce our oil dependence, cut pollution, and create safer and more intelligent drivers.
The month long contest was held in August 2009, and was sposored by The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), IBM , Spencer Trask Collaborative Innovations (STCI), and partners.
FuelClinic.com Camaro takes 1st Place at Sun Stroke Grand Prix – Daytona International Speedway
Congratulations to Mike Kern of MJK Racing and the #55 FuelClinic.com Camaro as they take 1st place in the 2009 Sun Stroke Grand Prix last weekend at Daytona International Speedway.
Photo credit: Michael Block
Despite a broken intake rocker arm in Saturday’s afternoon race, Mike Kern and the #55 FuelClinic Camaro crew (with the generous help of several seasoned engine witch-doctors)Â managed to find a replacement rocker and fix the engine in time to compete in both Sunday races, taking 1st place in the last GT-1 race of the weekend.
From V8StockCar.com: Mike Kern picked up a GT-1 win on Sunday afternoon, surviving a brief shower that made the going treacherous. Mike broke a rocker arm in the morning race, but determined to make the next race, made some calls to local shops until locating a replacement piece. His www.FuelClinic.com crew quickly had the racer repaired with plenty of time to spare.Â
FuelClinic has been sponsoring this race team for over a year now, and with the help of Mike Kern and the team, we have been reaching out past the “eco-conscious crowd” to reach thousands of race fans, business owners, fleet managers, as well as the media with our message that “eco-driving is for everyone“. We also use the car as a test-bed for new equipment and ideas, recently “torture-testing” a new data-logger that may be integrated with certain FuelClinic accounts.
We believe that the information and services provided by FuelClinic can help everyone learn how to live their lives comfortably and still use less gasoline (saving money), help create safer and less congested roads, reduce the stress of jockeying in traffic, and reduce pollution and emissions.
Related Links:
- I Drive 55 – Why does FuelClinic.com support automotive racing?
- Fuelishness! Blog:Â Category – Racing
Fuelishness!: Top 10 Clunked Alt-Fuel Cars; Intelligent In-Vehicle Tech; Fickle Consumers and MPG; India pressured to cut fuel subsidies
- Top Ten “green” cars that met their fate during Cash for Clunkers — We looked through the official, but as of yet unverified, list of trade-in cars that were clunked using the Car Allowance Rebate System (Cash for Clunkers) and found that the aforementioned CNG vehicles, 1,779 flex-fuel vehicles and 24 LPG vehicles found their way to the recycler thanks to CARS. Which alternative-fuel models were most dumped? Which single hybrid took a dive?
 - Europe to Launch Large-Scale Test of Intelligent In-Vehicle Technologies — Beginning in 2010, no less than 1,000 vehicles from various European vehicle brands equipped with various intelligent in-vehicle systems will drive around Europe for approximately one year. These intelligent vehicles will collect data that should deliver answers with regards to the impacts that these systems have on safety, efficiency and driver comfort.
 - U.S. auto industry faces tougher fuel-efficiency standards, fickle consumers — Trouble is brewing on the horizon for the U.S. automotive industry as it prepares for tougher fuel economy standards calling for the auto industry’s fleet of new vehicles to average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.
 - G20 puts pressure on India to phase out fuel subsidies over mid-term — The International Energy Agency and the OECD have estimated that removing fossil fuel subsidies by 2020 [sic] can bring down greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 by a whopping 10%.
Congratulations to iCarpool for winning the ITS Congestion Challenge
The much anticipated announcement was made earlier today at the 16th World Congress on ITS , and online at the ITSA website.
STOCKHOLM – 23 Sept. 2009: The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), IBM (NYSE:Â IBM), Spencer Trask Collaborative Innovations (STCI), and partners announced the results of the ITS Congestion Challenge, a global competition to find the best ideas for reducing traffic congestion.
The three organizations announced the selection of iCarpool.com at the 16th World Congress on ITS in Stockholm. iCarpool.com, headquartered in Issaquah, WA, won the competition among more than 116 entries from 20 countries. The organization will receive a cash investment of $50,000 USD, which will be used for further development of its solution.
For more info on the ITS Congestion Challenge and the other finalists please see the full Press Release - PDF
We here at FuelClinic would like to say “Well done!” and congratulations to iCarpool on their 1st place finish.
Read the entire press release (pdf).
Fuelishness! Feed: How to rate electric cars; 10 Ways to more MPG; Hybrid Corvette?; Windows Up/Down?; Uncle Sam and Fuel Efficiency
- Debate begins about fuel ratings on electric cars – As the government hammers out how it will rate the fuel efficiency of hybrid-electric and all-electric vehicles, an Israeli company wants to make sure the U.S. gets it right.
- Top 10 Ways to Improve the Fuel Economy of Your Vehicle – [Ed: Ten good tips, but totally miss "upgrading the software between the seat and steering wheel" as the one proven method for getting 10% to 30% better mileage from your car... just sayin'.]
- Corvette Could Go Hybrid To Survive Strict Fuel Rules – …the company will do whatever it takes to keep the Corvette around once the recently announced fuel regulations raise the national standard to a company-wide 35.5 mpg average in 2016.
- What’s better for fuel economy: windows rolled down or air conditioning? – Deep breath, people; this query is not as cut-and-dry as one would hope. [Ed: Here in Florida, it doesn't matter.]
- Is Uncle Sam On Right Track On Fuel Efficiency? – That depends on who you ask…
Signature Stats – Measure Success and Be Accountable
Last year I learned several lessons from John Wood who wrote “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World“, Â an inspiring story of a successful Microsoft executive who left his cushy job when he found his passion helping children in impoverished countries with the books and schoolhouses by starting a global non-profit called “Room to Read“.
One of Mr. Wood’s early ideas was to include in all email correspondence a signature that included the current state and progress of his work. In his case, at the bottom of each and every email he sent out he would include how many schools had been built, how many libraries established, how many book have been donated, and how many scholarships awarded. Between himself and his staff, he figures they sent out roughly 300 emails per day – 300 opportunities to show what they had, or had not yet done.
After reading that section of the book I decided that this was a natural thing to do with FuelClinic – since it’s a site dedicated to measuring members success, we should publicly announce the success or failure of the system as a whole, and be accountable to the people we hope to influence to try or invest in FuelClinic. So I added near real-time stats (cached every 15 minutes or so) to the homepage of FuelClinic, and have added daily stats to my email signature file. Here is today’s signature file:
Michael Bragg
Founder and CTO
FuelClinic.com (www.fuelclinic.com)
Fuelishness! Blog (blog.fuelclinic.com)———————————————-
FuelClinic.com | First Aid for High Gas Prices
———————————————-
“We have over 2,100 members who have tracked
4.05 million miles of driving, and improving
fuel mileage an average of 6.32%”
———————————————-
Our member’s stats:
———————————————-
$33,061 dollars saved
11,152 fewer gallons of gas consumed
216,348 fewer lbs of CO2 emissions
Personally, I’m not really that excited about the improvement in fuel mileage being 6.32% on average. My goal is to push that number up near 15%, but considering that FuelClinic is still missing the planned “eco-driving training courses”, it’s kind of impressive that simply getting educated about actual fuel cost and it’s impact – and being involved enough to keep receipts and plug them into this website – equals a better-than 6% improvement in efficiency. (And this isn’t 6% better than the EPA estimates, this is 6% better than when they started tracking mileage.)
I believe in accountability, and I believe this method of announcing success (or lack of) to both new and old contacts alike. If you’ve got a business you are struggling to start-up — find ways to indicate your progress, find something you can measure with certainty and start assigning a number or percentage to it, and then re-write your email signature file to include these metrics. Update it daily.
Thank You! for supporting FuelClinic at the ITSA Challenge
The ITSA Challenge is now finished, and voting is now closed.Â
An enormous Thank You! to everyone who took the time to help support FuelClinic in the ITSA Challenge. The winners will be announced in a few weeks at the ITS World Congress in Sweden. I’ll update this page and our blog as soon as I can with the latest information.
- Michael
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