New tech by Nissan: Tactile feedback in gas pedal to help you save gas | Hacker News Reader

New tech by Nissan: Tactile feedback in gas pedal to help you save gas

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13 pointsMikeCapone14 comments

As someone who drives a stick, I would love to see this feature under the right foot of drivers of auto cars. I drive a 300hp sports car and on my stoplight commutes if I'm not accelerating pretty aggressively, people will be on my tail behind me.

I think many people just don't realize how much they slam on the gas once the light turns green. With auto cars getting smoother and quieter (especially with the CVT transmissions), many people don't even get the auditory feedback anymore that they're hauling ass. Combine that with your average driver who doesn't understand what the RPM gauge is for, and you get the stoplight quarter-mile drag race on repeat until you get to work.

I'm trying to square your concern for the gas mileage of your fellow drivers with your choice of vehicle. Those cylinders and their parasite losses (more air to compress, more manifold vacuum to suck, more surface area to rub against) don't come for free...

You'd have to be a true leadfoot to pull a typical automatic sedan down to the mileage range of a 300hp monster (c.f. the Mustang GT, which gets 15/23mpg on the EPA test). My '99 Saturn, a pure commute vehicle which drives 5 miles at a time in stop and go traffic on a cold engine (basically pessimal fuel efficiency conditions) never gets below 22.

The point of my comment is that I'm driving a sports car yet have to accelerate pretty aggressively to keep up with the automatic drivers. I have a Mazdaspeed6 with K&N intake and turboback exhaust (~300hp and 250 to the wheels). The few mods aside, Mazda's 2.3L I4-DISI engine is highly efficient and there's a reason it has been on Wards 10-Best Engines for the past 3 years.

I get 22-24mpg around town and 26-29 highway depending on how aggressively I drive. I've gotten it as low as 17 when I initially owned the car and was racing everywhere, but that's the absolute worst I've seen. My best efficiency run on a drive from TX->PA saw ~455 miles before I had to fill up again.

Here's some more information for you on why my 300hp "monster" gets equivalent gas mileage to your Saturn: http://wardsautoworld.com/ar/auto_story_behind_wards_2/

I have an 205hp Acura TSX (07) and I have gotten anywhere between 32 - 36 highway on a tank of gas which is almost 25% better than your Mazda and IMO the TSX has great highway acceleration even if it's a little slow from a dead start. Granted it takes an extra second on the 0-60 vs. Mazdaspeed6 but you don't accelerate that hard anyway so what's the point.

I like power but there is a direct relationship between HP and efficiency but going over ~200 in a car seems to be a waste IMO.

That's the tradeoff. I smoke you through the turns, and you get better gas mileage. I don't drive hard on commutes, but I don't work on the weekends =) Also, the MS6 is a mid-size sedan, the TSX is a compact entry-level sedan that weighs ~400 lbs less. The Acura TL vs. MS6 would be a better comparison.

Finally, gas mileage is much more related to the weight of the car mated to the engine, rather than the horsepower output of the engine itself. A simple example -- when people drop in an LS1 engine (when tuned it's upwards of 400hp+) to a Mazda RX-7 body - which weighs about 2400lbs - they get around 25-30mpg.

I think you're on the right track here when you mention vehicle weight.

Some kind of feedback for drivers on the ridiculously weights new cars are carrying these days would be more useful than gas pedal feedback.

Isn't traction control like the one F1 had in 2006 better in terms of speed and easier for the driver to use?

I think a dashboard meter displaying $/hour of fuel consumed would be more effective - and probably cheaper to implement.

I disagree: having driven a hybrid for some time, I don't want to be looking at the dashboard to watch my driving efficiency all the time. A non-visual feedback que like this would help me as a driver be continously aware of my driving efficiency.

Why bother? Sure, you might save a few dollars a week, but in exchange you'd spend your whole driving time depressed. Not worthwhile.

Some people find it entertaining: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/01/king_of_the_...

If there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that there is no such thing as excess acceleration.

is there some physics in-joke I'm missing?

In regards to the first paragraph: my mom has a sweet gadget I'm envious of. It is a sensor you attach to your electric metre (its a camera which reads how fast it spins) with a wireless monitor. The main feature of the monitor is how many $/hour you are spending on electricity (you can have it in real time or averaged over any length of time). I enjoy walking through the house turning on various lights and appliances to see how much they cost to run.

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