A UK project is attempting to improve fuel efficiency by telling cars about the local geography including hills.  

“The aim is to demonstrate how affordable systems - in many cases already existing on-board - can be deployed to utilise the electronic horizon of the vehicle to improve efficiency and hence fuel economy,” said automotive consultancy Ricardo.

The company said that control strategies have been developed in three distinct areas to improve power train and vehicle management, based on an awareness of impending changes in road topology and both fixed and probabilistic speed limitations.

Now nearing completion, the Sentience research project is a collaboration between Ricardo, Orange Business Services, Jaguar Land Rover, Ordnance Survey and research lab TRL, and is part-funded by innovITS.

Strategies have been focused on enhanced acceleration/deceleration (EAD) in which the vehicle speed is controlled to meet actual and virtual speed limits; optimised engine load (OEL) in which the hybrid power train systems are managed using advanced route knowledge in such a way as to make optimal use of recharging opportunities; and optimized air-conditioning (EAC) control in which temperature set-points are adjusted prior to and following temporary stops. 

Findings so far are that:

• EAD strategies in particular have shown fuel savings of between 5 and 30% in initial track testing, depending upon traffic conditions and route topology.
• For vehicles already equipped with GSM and GPS, no additional hardware will be required for a production implementation.
• Additional control software and processing requirements can potentially be met using existing on-board electronics modules.
  

The consortium expects to publically demonstrate an equipped vehicle early next year.