A fuel saving iPhone application has been launched to help motorists save fuel as they drive.
The innovative system provides visual and audio recommendations on what changes they can make to their driving style to help them save more fuel.
Amersham-based developers DriveGain says that the average fuel economy can be improved by 15 percent by using the iPhone prompts to make changes to driving behaviour.
Saving fuel not only saves users money, it also reduces the amount of CO2 they emit and allows them to travel further before needing to refuel.
“Fuel prices worldwide have risen rapidly over the last year and the cost of motoring is now a real issue for many people,” said Simon East, CEO of DriveGain, “For a relatively small outlay the DriveGain application can help drivers save a substantial amount of money each year – and the application will typically pay for itself within two weeks of driving.”
DriveGain works with any petrol (gasoline) or diesel car with a manual (stick-shift) transmission. The application has a database of over 8,400 European and 8,500 North American cars to choose from. Support for cars with automatic transmissions will be added shortly.
DriveGain runs on the following devices: iPhone 3G and 3GS, iPod Touch (with a GPS Car Kit) and iPad (Wi-Fi + 3G model) and can be downloaded from the Apple AppStore for £3.99 or $6.99.
The application provides detailed audio feedback on the user’s driving and delivers verbal feedback on what is being doing correctly and areas of driving style which can be improved, for example: “Your cruising speed was good”, “Try reducing your acceleration”
A prompt is also issued to indicate when the car engine should be in top gear.
The audio feedback has been carefully designed not to annoy the driver and users can choose between US and UK English voices.
The visual feedback provides data, including
• Current recommended gear
• Level of acceleration or braking - with the effect this has on fuel consumption
• The current speed - with the effect this has on fuel consumption
• The current driving smoothness score
• Average fuel economy reading (in MPG, l/100km etc) – this can be switched to show average cost per distance, average CO2 output, total cost, total CO2, total fuel used, and total distance
• Instantaneous Fuel Use meter (in MPG, l/100km etc) – this can be switched to show cost per distance (e.g. p/mile) or CO2 output (g / km)
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