Ford’s SmartGauge with Ecoguide Helps Drivers Save Gas [Video]
A few months ago Cleantechnica reported on the new Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan’s graphical display known as SmartGauge. Now Ford has released a video showing the interactive display in action.
Probably the coolest part of the video is where it shows how the driver will get instantaneous driving habits feedback by displaying how efficiently he or she is driving. The gauge does this through a constantly changing display of green leaves — the more green leaves on the display, the better you’re driving. For the less creative among us, that same information can also be displayed in a history graph (fuel economy over the last ten minutes). This is a nice, non-intrusive way to help promote good driving habits and maximizing a driver’s fuel economy.
Video after the break (skip to minute 2 for hybrid-specific graphics and display).
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Image: Ford
So how is this an improvement over the simple instantaneous mpg bar gauge in my Honda Insight? Seems like it’s just more blinking lights to impress the hard-of-thinking.