Every time I give somebody a ride in my car, the first thing they ask me about is this gauge on the dashboard. I never know what to tell them because I'm not really sure how it works either. The only thing I know for certain is when the battery is charging because the charging section of the gauge fills up. But, besides that I couldn't tell you what's going on exactly. Sure, when I step on the accelerator the fat section in the middle fills up and the more I depress the pedal the more it fills up. Eventually, the fat section fills up completely and the power part starts to fill. I also notice the "ECO" indicator on the gauge goes off once the power section starts to fill. But, I can't explain a lot of things. Why does the ECO indicator go off? What does it mean when the power section get filled? Why is the fat section divided into two parts?
Let's see what the owner's manual has to say. Looks like the gauge is called the Hybrid System Indicator. The fat section is called the ECO area and shows that the vehicle is being driven in an environmentally friendly manner, hence the ECO indicator is on. Apparently the first half on the ECO area is also called the Hybrid ECO area and indicates that gasoline power is not being used very often. Ok, but doesn't that happen for the whole ECO area? I don't see how the Hybird ECO area is that much different from the rest of the ECO area. Anyways, when the power area starts filling it shows that an environmentally friendly driving range is being exceeded and the ECO indicator goes off.
I guess in retrospect that all makes sense, but I don't think the gauge is all that useful in general. In fact, I usually never watch the gauge when I'm driving. I prefer to watch the fuel consumption gauge, which gives you the real time fuel consumption of the car as opposed to some reference gauge which does necessarily give me an useful information. The fuel consumption gauge also gives more feedback on the environmental friendliness of your driving. If you are getting more mpgs then you are obviously doing more Eco friendly driving. In my opinion, the Hybrid System Indicator serves very little purpose and adds no value to the driving experience.
My guess for the reason that they put the ECO meter on there was that they figured that people wouldn't know what level of miles per gallon translates into driving in an eco-friendly manner. Like you said yourself "more miles per gallon means more eco-friendly." But how much more eco-friendly? Yes 40mpg is better than 30mpg, but what do you benchmark your miles per gallon against? Without a frame of reference you could just be shooting for an mpg range that ends up being pretty similar to a fuel efficient car or a small car with a diesel engine. I bet they put the ECO indicator in order to make it easy for someone to gauge if they were driving eco-friendly or not. Without much detail, though, it's hard to know what aspects of your driving affect the EDO light the most.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm guessing that Toyota wanted to make it simple. In this case, they sacrificed some understandability and complexity in order to avoid complication. You obviously desire more detail as to how your driving is affecting the ecosystem. Why didn't Toyota provide a website where you could download your driving performance and compare to other people in your city. What if you were rewarded for being the most eco-friendly driver in your neighborhood? Now that would be cool. And maybe that type of competition would raise awareness and motivate people to action.
I don't think it's about sacrificing detail- actually, I think it is the complete opposite. Toyota failed to sacrifice detail and that's where this gauge is screwed up. In the middle range of the gauge- who would care about how full the bar is? It doesn't provide you any information, only useless and unidentifiable metrics.
ReplyDeleteNow Ford's gauge is genius in my opinion (http://www.autoinsane.com/photos/reviews09/FordFusionHybrid/Ford_SmartGauge_leaves.jpg) Giving a visual representation in addition to a numeric mpg gives just the right amount of information and doesn't overload with ridiculous bars that don't mean anything. U S A damnit
That gauge looks like something straight from a 90's video game. Like a life meter or turbo boost meter. Maybe when the power bar is fully lit, you actually have a turbo boost available if you press the gas pedal and one of the stereo buttons in the right combination. Yeah, like a combo in Street Fighter or something.
ReplyDeleteBut in all seriousness, this thing makes no sense to me. Why not just have the ECO light be lit up when it is using battery power, and then off when it isn't. No need for a gauge or bar in my opinion. Or maybe just fill or unfill the ECO light as you begin to use more or less electricity versus gasoline. Just an idea.