Hacked? (Confirmed)… Fixed!
On certain browsers I’m seeing “Online Casino” links somehow injected into the Fuelishness! Blog titles and content. If you are seeing this also, please let me know in the comments or using the feedback tab. It only appears to effect IE, because Firefox and Chrome appear ok. Anyone have a clue where to start looking for this one? – Michael
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Confirmed… only shows up on Googlebot scans and certain browsers, there goes my page rank… asking hosting provider to restore from a backup or upgrade the site to a fresh install. I think it might be time to use a different blog package – this is the third or forth time we’ve been hacked this year.
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Thanks to the always impressive customer service of HostMySite/Hosting.com (and Brady, thank you very much) the codebase got a fresh install of the latest version of WordPress, and I’m not seeing the sneaky injections in my tests of the site. Might be a few more days before Google is corrected, hopefully my PageRank will be restored.
Thank you Brady at Hosting.com VPS support – it’s a Christmas miracle! (I couldn’t resist.)
FuelClinic data included in Copenhagen case study
A few weeks ago I was asked by EcoDrivingUSA to create a graphic describing some aggregate efficiency improvement data from the information collected here at FuelClinic. The intent was to demonstrate the efficacy of eco-driving techniques for improving fuel efficiency and decreasing GHG emissions.
I spent a few hours pouring through the database, to find the best data set to describe our users maintaining fuel receipt records, making sure not to skew the numbers, but selecting a sub-set of our most active members who do not have data entry problems (automatically flagged as “suspect” by FuelClinic – a whole topic unto itself).
Then I created the following graphic, with this description:
This information made it into an “EcoDriving Impact Study for Copenhagen” presented by Driving Sustainability earlier this month. What’s most impressive is that the average improvement in fuel efficiency is 5.23% without any real form of ecodriving training - a point not lost on the authors of the study:
According to FuelClinic.com, the average EcoDriver improves their efficiency by 5.3%. These are drivers who have had no formal instruction on green driving…
If everyone in the US improved their efficiency by a basic EcoDriving level of 5%, this would result in a 66,346,545 ton reduction in CO2 emissions in the US.
The most active FuelClinic account users are benefiting from following simple online tips and believing that they can improve their fuel efficiency. The effort it takes to create an account, collect multiple receipts, and enter that information into the application is not trivial, and it indicates that a percentage of motorists are interested in understanding their fuel efficiency – and just the act of being “involved” and improving their understanding is all it take to turn an average motorist into a basic EcoDriver.
As an aside – my personal goal for FuelClinic is to increase this average efficiency improvement to 10% by the end of 2010.
You can download the case study (.pdf) here.
Video: “The Rest Is Up To You” – Eco-Driver On Board
Eco-Driver On Board
FuelClinic.com will show you how to improve your gas mileage and get 5%, 10% up to 20% better MPG (and sometimes more) using the vehicle that you already own, while helping improve road safety, reducing traffic congestion, and saving you money.
FuelClinic.com will accurately calculate and track your actual gas mileage online easily, will teach you safe and efficient driving techniques that will improve your gas mileage, and will help you monitor your progress as you continue to practice better driving techniques.
You will save money, cut your own carbon emissions, and help reduce our dependence on foreign oil – all at the same time. Join the thousands who already use FuelClinic.com to become safer, smarter, more efficient drivers.
Safer, Smarter, Fuel Efficient Driving
Visit http://www.fuelclinic.com to learn more about eco-driving, and to join our community of eco-drivers.
Category: Autos & Vehicles
Video: New FuelClinic.com Feedback Forum
I’ve just created my first Jing video, a <5-minute screen capture that demonstrates the User Voice Feedback system that I’ve added to FuelClinic in an effort to organize bugs and requests in a community-driven forum.
Watch the quick video online here and add your own feedback to the new forum or vote on existing ideas you want to see get completed first.
MINI Cooper D Sets New Zealand Fuel Economy Record Of 3.5 l/100km (67.2 MPG)
Source: The Motor Report
A MINI Cooper D (diesel) – piloted by trained ecodrivers Mark Whittaker and Paul Owen – has just set a new record for fuel efficient driving, by driving 2000 km on just over 72 liters (19 US gallons) of diesel fuel – achieving 3.5 l/100km (just over 67 MPG) average for that trip.
Mark Whittaker said the aim of the exercise was to highlight the potential for cutting New Zealand’s transport related emissions at little or no extra cost.
“In setting this record we are demonstrating that everyone can contribute to reducing emissions by choosing a fuel efficient car and employing simple ecodriving techniques,” Mr Whittaker said.
While Whittaker and Owen had originally targeted an average of 3.0 l/100km, the final 3.5 l/100km figure bested the country’s other top fuel miser – the third generation Toyota Prius – with which the Cooper D shares an official fuel economy of 3.9 l/100km.
The MINI Cooper D sports a fuel efficient and spunky small clean diesel engine and state-of-the-art start/stop technology similar to the new Ford Focus ECOnic we profiled a few days ago.
The Cooper D’s figures are thanks to a host of technological innovations borrowed from parent company BMW (including a start-stop system and a thrifty diesel engine from PSA).
BMW Group New Zealand Managing Director, Mark Gilbert said the fuel economy record proves how far diesel technology has come.
“The MINI has proven that new, small clean diesel engines have an important part to play in improving the fuel economy of the New Zealand vehicle fleet,” said Mr Gilbert.
“And the other clear message from this exercise is that it is not only what you drive, but how you drive, that counts,” he said. (Emphasis added)
That last bit sounds familiar! We certainly agree.
The bad news is that although it was mentioned last February that MINI was considering making the Cooper D available in the US, it has yet to become a reality according to our local MINI dealer. A message to MINI USA about the future availability of the “D” here in the US is awaiting reply – I’ll update you should we hear back. (If you’ve seen a “firm” scheduled availability date, please let me know.)
The future availability of the Ford Focus ECOnic diesel is also yet to be announced. In the past I mentioned my experience driving the SEAT with a small clean diesel a few years ago in Estonia… for now, you’ll still need to cross the pond to have this much fun driving at over 65 miles per gallon.
Lotus Tests the Two-Stroke “Omnivore” Engine
Source: CNET Green Tech
Last year, Lotus announced the development of its Omnivore engine, the name denoting flex fuel capability. Today Lotus released test results for the engine, along with the kind of detail on how it operates only an engineer could love. These test results cover the first phase of testing the Omnivore engine with gasoline. Presumably, testing with fuels derived from alcohol and other sources are in the next phases.
In Lotus’ lab, the Omnivore engine brought in 10 percent better fuel economy than current direct injection engines, which are the most efficient on the market.
Two-stroke engines have twice as many “power strokes” at any given RPM when compared to the common four-stroke engines, making them more powerful and naturally efficient. (The engine is not “wasting” as much energy moving the piston up and down in power-robbing intake and scavenging strokes.) Two-strokes are smaller and lighter when compared to four-stroke engine of similar horsepower, and have fewer moving parts that simplifies the inner workings, making them cheaper to build and maintain.
In the past, the problem has always been pollution – it was considered near-impossible to build a two-stroke engine that could meet modern emission standards. Apparently Lotus is solving this problem:
Omnivore also uses a two-stroke, rather than a four stroke cycle, but still manages to turn in emission levels equivalent to modern production engines.
This Lotus prototype engine uses an ignition system called “homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), meaning that instead of igniting its fuel charge with a spark plug, the compression of the cylinder causes the charge to ignite, similar to a diesel engine.”
More good news – the prototype is a flex-fuel engine, which would allow the owner/operator to choose what kind of fuel preferred to power it with – fossil-fuel gasoline (and diesel?) or bio-mass alcohol (ethanol/methanol) or a combination of the two.
Flex-fuel engines already exist, the problem with the current crop is that they are engineered as gasoline engines, and re-programmed to also run on alcohol blends – meaning that mechanically they are still designed for the lower compression ratios required to run on modern gasoline blends. Alcohol fuels have “less energy” per gallon than gasoline, but can run at a much higher compression ratios, allowing a properly-built alcohol engine to “gain” additional efficiency and reduce the “MPG” gap with gasoline.
The Lotus engine can apparently modify it’s compression ratio thanks to what they call the “puck” – or the “variable compression mechanism…at the top of the cylinder which dynamically changes the displacement depending on running conditions.”
Once again innovative engineering is proving that there still are many ways to improve fuel efficiency with the internal combustion engines, and there are no technical reasons we can’t be driving cars that get 60+ MPG regularly. The “fuel efficiency flat-line” from the mid-1980’s until just recently was due to something else – not because it was “technically impossible” to build more efficient engines.
6,000,000 Miles… and Still Counting
Six million miles. Our FuelClinic.com users have recorded over six-million miles of real-world driving records. Quite amazing.
Every “million mile mark” is a cause for a little celebration, considering the humble beginnings and modest means that have so far contributed to the building of this community of conscientious consumers. All of our members wanting to learn a little more about their habits, all seeking to improve their efficiency – and save some money at the same time.
Some of you have entered a few receipts and moved on, some of you have been keeping records for over a year. All of you have suffered with this prototype site, it’s shortcomings, and my own fits and starts.
Thank you for you time and continued patience as we build FuelClinic into the foundation of a wonderful tool that will help even more people save some money and help improve the quality and safety of our travels for all of us.
- Michael
Congestion Challenge Awardees Presented at 2009 ITSA Annual Meeting
Source ITSA:
ITS Congestion Challenge
The first global ITS Congestion Challenge, announced in June 2009, was open to entrepreneurs, commuters, transportation experts, researchers in all fields, universities, and citizens around the world. Three winners and six finalists from Hungary, Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States, were selected by an open global community of more than 4,000 people, including transportation industry professionals and the general public.
1st PLACE
iCarpool provides commuters and other travelers with comprehensive travel choices for modes of travel other than driving alone. Read more.
2nd PLACE
FuelClinic, for their “Eco-System” and “Eco-Driver On Board” programs, which provide tools and certified eco-driving training to improve, track, and manage driver performance for increased fuel efficiency, increased driver safety, and reduced accident rates. Read more.
3rd PLACE
iCone Products, LLC, for an ITS concept to beam real-time traffic information over the Internet to a central web site for use by government officials, emergency response personnel, trucking fleets, the public and information resellers, including media outlets and GPS services. Read more.
“Caption This Image” Winner(s) Announced
In late October I posted an image I had cobbled together and asked Fuelishness! readers to help me improve the caption that accompanied it. I offered a $50 gas card as a reward for what we felt was the best suggestion. We received over 50 suggestions here at Fuelishness! I did something similar at the Vencorp classifieds, and we collected about a dozen additional suggestions.
At Vencorps, we chose the suggestion by Shashank K:
Emissions Compliance [Check]
Engine Performance [Check]
Aerodynamic design [Check]
There’s only so much the car can do, then its all YOU.
It’s a great suggestion, an we’ve already started to use it in a new animation currently in production. (It’s fantastic!) I hope to be able to release this new animation by the end of this year.
Here at Fuelishness! the choice was much harder to make… there are so many good suggestions. First we whittled the field down to the top dozen. Then we weighted each and added up the scores. We chose the suggestion by Lori on October 22nd:
Want better MPG’s? You’re in the Driver’s Seat.
We will be using this caption in future marketing materials.
Congratulations to the winners, and thank you all for participating in our first ever FuelClinic Fuelishness! contest.
New Ford Focus Gets 71MPG – Only in Europe
Five years ago I visited family in Estonia, a country still digging out from decades of Soviet domination after World War Two. Estonia is an amazingly beautiful country full of “old world” charm and wonderful people. My cousin, who built heavy robotic equipment for the lumber industry , drove a SEAT hatchback with a small, quiet, and clean diesel engine that had tons of torque, ran on bio-diesel (available in most towns), and got better than 65 miles per gallon regularly. I was astonished.
We drove that spunky car all over the country, into Latvia, with the whole family, sometimes towing his little Russian-era boat. It was a joy to drive, and when we passed a field of soybean my cousin would smile at me and point, saying we were driving on sunshine – converted to oil in those plants. He said proudly “We are all green in Estonia. I am a green man.”
I wondered why I couldn’t buy a car like that back home in America.
Consider the new Ford Focus (available in Europe) with a little diesel engine, and upgraded starter, alternator, battery package that support their improved ECOnic start/stop technology – similar to a golf cart, the engine stops when the car is idle for a few seconds, and springs back to life when you press the accelerator to move ahead.
As with any Focus it is delightfully balanced and comfortable and the stop/start process in traffic is by no means intrusive or unduly noisy. In fact it is one of the better versions of the current crop of on/off engines.
The starter motor has been beefed up to cope with the additional use while developments have been made to the alternator to reduce friction and lessen the workload on the engine.
To improve fuel consumption further, kinetic energy built up as the car goes along is captured and used to recharge one of the two batteries which power the likes of the air conditioning or entertainment systems when the engine is off.
NOTE: While it’s generally a good idea to turn off your engine and reduce idling when not in traffic, we do NOT recommend turning your car off while in traffic – hybrids and stop/start equipped cars are designed to do this safely and automatically. Turning your car off (turning off the “ignition”) while in traffic is illegal in most places and puts you at risk if you need to move quickly to avoid a hazard.
The Focus also takes “driver feedback” to another level, with an on-board “eco driving coach” that will analyze driving habits and help encourage the driver to be more efficient.
On the road, the car monitors the driver’s technique examining gear changes, the smoothness of steering and use of speed.
The results are displayed on the instrument panel and highlight areas were improvements can be made. It also praises good eco-driving.
Eco-driver feedback systems are becoming more and more popular. FuelClinic is a type of feedback system, but isn’t real-time and doesn’t travel along with you in the car. Our new CarChip Pro does travel with you, providing real-time feedback when you accelerate too quickly, brake too aggressively, or exceed a pre-set speed limit. Other devices like the Rover from Cartasite provide similar feedback, and communicate wirelessly.
These uber-efficient diesels are not easily available in the US (you’ll need to look to Volkswagen if you want a diesel car here), nor is a ready supply of bio-diesel at pumps in many places – a classic chicken-and-egg dilemma.
Would you buy a small diesel-powered vehicle like the Focus mentioned? What if you could have your favorite make, manufacturer, and body style – but with a little-diesel option?
Video: Eco-Driving Training
Take a few minutes to see a bit of eco-driving training in action. This video was shot in the UK, where eco-driving techniques are more well established and practiced more frequently (after all fuel is quite a bit more expensive in Europe than it is here in the US) – but the lessons are universal, and not difficult at all.
Both mention how difficult it is to change driving habits, that it may take as long as 6 months to overcome the “automatic” existing habits. In the end the driver gets some feedback that he has almost doubled his fuel efficiency with the new habits – a powerful motivation to motorists looking to save money while maintaining current their current lifestyle.
Introducing CarChip Pro w/ Eco-Driving Profile to FuelClinic Users
One of the most interesting things about “eco-driving” is that you can actually measure your progress and see the results of your efforts. FuelClinic allows you to track your overall MPG and related metrics over time, but it takes at least two receipts in order to establish your baseline, and then many more receipts over time to see if your mileage is improving or not. This is great because it’s simple, low-tech, and maybe best of all - it’s free.
But what if you wanted to dig deeper into your driving habits, to see exactly how you are driving vs. how you think you are driving. Maybe you need a little bit of help remembering to drive efficiently, some “virtual eco-driving coaching” along the way. Maybe you wanted to be able to “check in” on your inexperienced teenage driver to see that he or she is driving safely, or check to determine if your employees are doing what they can to drive efficiently and lower your fuel costs.
What is required is an interactive data-logger. There are several gadgets on the market, or soon-to-be released to the market. We’ve spent the last several months evaluating many of these devices for integration with our certified eco-driving training course using the reporting capabilities of FuelClinic, and have found several that seem very promising.
One of our top criteria is that the device not become a distraction to the driver, that it didn’t require the driver take his/her eyes off the road to look at a display or other indicators. Instead we looked for devices that gave simple auditory cues to remind the driver when his/her driving behavior exceeded pre-defined thresholds, and one that allowed the user or fleet manager to determine for themselves what “Eco-Driving Profile” to attempt to achieve.
I believe one in particular hits a sweet spot between cost, capability, ease of use, and integration potential. It’s called the CarChip Pro (and CarChip Fleet Pro for commercial use) manufactured in the USA by Davis Instruments. We’ve been testing several of the units for over a month now and have been getting feedback from professional driving school and fleet owners. Response was very positive, so I have decided to start selling these devices on the website.
CarChip Pro is a portable device that requires no extra wires or batteries (a USB cable is all that is needed to download the data to your computer), is installed in just a few seconds into the OBDII port that is standard on most cars since 1996, and can be moved from vehicle to vehicle easily. I’m working on a new section for FuelClinic that will provide all of the details about CarChip Pro, along with guidence on how to set-up an “Eco-Driving Profile” using the software provided with the unit.
I’m really excited about the CarChip Pro - Davis Instruments has been making the CarChip line of data loggers for nearly a decade, they are small, reliable, and have already been installed in tens of thousands of vehicles. The CarChip Pro is also one of the least expensive interactive data loggers on the market - with no monthly cellular fees or required contracts, making it attractive to parents, consumers, driving school owners, and small business fleet owners (there is also a commercial Fleet version with additional capabilities including a WIFI wireless data-download option and GPS data logging).
Stay tuned for more information about the CarChip Pro and how you can order yours (with a special discount) here at FuelClinic.
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