'Smart' vehicles know traffic forecasts

Australian engineers have successfully built a ' smart ' vehicle capable of forecasting the traffic situation to adjust vehicle speed, thus achieving the same fuel economy as hybrid cars (engine cars " hybrid " has both run and run electricity.

According to a research team from the University of Melbourne, Australia, ' smart ' vehicles are equipped with sensors to foretell traffic flow on the road, thereby providing fuel efficiency like the type. Hybrid cars are being praised today.

Hybrid cars, such as Toyota Prius cars, have electronic controllers that decide when to use electric motors, when to use internal combustion engines, and when to operate synchronously. Thus, it can create fuel economy.

In the meantime, ' smart ' vehicles are common cars with a ' telematics ' system, that is, a system formed by a combination of information technology and radio communication technology . More specifically, it is a system for broadcasting, receiving and storing information with telecommunications equipment.

When equipped with telematics system, conventional cars will achieve the same fuel economy as hybric vehicles (Artwork: imageshack.us, VNN)

Applied in car technology, this telematics system includes sensors, receiving and processing information on traffic on the road. Through the collected data, this system will decide to speed up or slow down the vehicle, make it easier to run the car, to avoid the situation of " winning and re-running " over and over and over and over again. material.

In their research, Australian engineers compared the effectiveness of two hybrid technologies and telematics in the field of fuel savings for cars.

During the experiment, experts used a sedan (a closed-top car) as a ' standard vehicle' and used three different Australian, American and European driving cycles. These cycles are based on urban lifestyles in these countries.

Test results show that when this sedan is converted into a hybrid version, it saves fuel at 15-25% compared to before being converted.

But when the ' standard ' vehicle was installed with telematics system, it still achieved that saving rate, with the advance notice of the traffic of 7 seconds according to the Australian cycle; And according to the American and European cycles, the notice period is nearly 60 seconds.

According to the team, if the prediction time is raised to 180 seconds, this ' smart ' vehicle will save 33% more fuel than before it was converted. The data achieved in this study will be helpful in the debate about the effectiveness of fuel use for vehicles - an important issue in the fight against exhaust emissions. current greenhouse.

This study was published on May 9, 2007 in Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, of Elsevier Group, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Quang Thinh

According to AFP, Transport Research Part C, Wikipedia, VNN