Location awareness and fuel efficiency

Connected cars

When a modern car knows where it is and where it’s going, it can make a host of subtle changes to improve performance, ride comfort or fuel economy. For example, an automatic transmission can change gear at precisely the correct moment if it knows exactly when the next corner is coming up.

I explored this topic for Engine Technology International, with my article becoming the cover story for the January 2018 edition. The piece looked at pioneering uses of location-aware systems by BMW, Rolls-Royce, Volvo and hydrogen car startup Riversimple.

Key quote
“If we didn’t have GPS data we’d have to pretty much double the size of our onboard energy store just to make sure we’ve got enough energy for different scenarios”
Dr Nico Sergent, powertrain architect, Riversimple