Method for Displaying the Consumption of an Operating Material and/or Pollutant Emissions of a Vehicle and Display Device

• US 20090088960A1
• Filed: 09/29/2008
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Moll, Winfried
• Application Number:
  US12/240,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20090088960A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/123
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 9/008 where the other variable is the flight or running time

Abstract

To assist the driver of a vehicle in driving the vehicle in an improved, environmentally conscious way, a first consumption profile of a first predetermined instantaneous consumption and/or pollutant emissions over a predefined route is displayed on the display device, and at the same time a second consumption profile of an actual instantaneous consumption over a route section of the predefined route that has been traveled along by the vehicle, is displayed on the display device. Furthermore, it is proposed that a first pollutant emission profile of a first predetermined instantaneous amount of pollutant emissions over the predefined route is displayed on the display device and at the same time a second pollutant emission profile of an actual instantaneous amount of pollutant emissions over the route section traveled along by the vehicle, of the predefined route is displayed on the display device.

Claims

1. A method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle,

the method comprising:

displaying a first predetermined consumption profile for a predefined route, the first predetermined consumption profile comprising a plurality of predetermined instantaneous consumption values for the predefined route; and

displaying a first actual consumption profile for a traveled portion of the predefined route traveled by the vehicle, the first actual consumption profile comprising a plurality of instantaneous consumption values for the traveled portion,

wherein the first predetermined consumption profile and the actual consumption profile are displayed simultaneously.

2. The method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the first predetermined consumption profile over the predefined route is based at least in part on a selected travel time for the predefined route.

3. The method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a second predetermined consumption profile for at least a portion of a residual route, the residual route representing an untraveled portion of the predefined route,

wherein the second predetermined consumption profile is based at least in part on the first actual consumption profile for the traveled portion of the predefined route.

4. The method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising storing at least the predefined route and the first actual consumption profile in a memory unit.

5. The method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle of claim 4, the method further comprising:

determining an average consumption over the predefined route, after the entire predefined route has been traveled by the vehicle; and

storing the average consumption in the memory unit.

6. The method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

acquiring at least one of a vehicle velocity or a gear speed of a vehicle transmission;

that is necessary to achieve the first predetermined consumption profile taking into account the actual instantaneous consumption profile.

7. The method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the first predetermined consumption profile is based in part on the plurality of instantaneous consumption values.

14. The method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a first predetermined pollutant emissions profile of a first predetermined instantaneous amount of pollutant emissions over a predefined route;

displaying a first actual pollutant emissions profile of an actual instantaneous amount of pollutant emissions for at least part of the predefined route traveled by the vehicle;

wherein the first predetermined pollutant emissions profile, the actual pollutant emissions profile, the first predetermined consumption profile, and the actual consumption profile are displayed simultaneously.

15. The method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle according to claim 6, further comprising transmitting the at least one of a vehicle velocity or a gear speed of a vehicle transmission to a driver of the vehicle.

16. The method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle according to claim 14, further comprising determining the predefined route using a navigation device.

17. The method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle according to claim 14, further comprising determining at least one of the predefined route and the first actual consumption profile by recording the at least one of the predefined route and first actual consumption profile when the vehicle travels along the predefined route.

18. The method for graphically displaying fuel consumption of a motor vehicle according to claim 15, further comprising:

inputting the acquired vehicle velocity to a velocity control system; and

controlling the velocity of the vehicle by the velocity control system based at least in part on the acquired emission velocity.

8. A method for graphically displaying an amount of pollutant emissions of a motor vehicle, the method comprising:

displaying a first predetermined pollutant emissions profile of a first predetermined instantaneous amount of pollutant emissions over a predefined route;

displaying a first actual pollutant emissions profile of an actual instantaneous amount of pollutant emissions for at least part of the predefined route traveled by the vehicle;

wherein the first predetermined pollutant emissions profile and the actual consumption profile are displayed simultaneously.

9. The method for graphically displaying an amount of pollutant emissions of a motor vehicle according to claim 8, wherein the first predetermined pollutant emissions over the predefined route is based at least in part on a selected travel time for the predefined route.

10. The method for graphically displaying an amount of pollutant emissions of a motor vehicle according to claim 8, further comprising:

displaying a second predetermined pollutant emissions profile for at least a portion of a residual route, the residual route representing an untraveled portion of the predefined route,

wherein the second predetermined pollutant emissions profile is based in part on the first actual pollutant emissions profile for the traveled portion of the predefined route.

11. The method for graphically displaying an amount of pollutant emissions of a motor vehicle according to claim 10, further comprising storing at least the predefined route and the first actual pollutant emissions profile in a memory:

12. The method for graphically displaying an amount of pollutant emissions of a motor vehicle according to claim 11, further comprising:

determining a total of the pollutant emissions over the predefined route, after the entire predefined route has been traveled by the vehicle; and

storing the total pollutant emissions in the memory.

13. The method for graphically displaying an amount of pollutant emissions of a motor vehicle according to claim 12, further comprising:

acquiring at least one of a vehicle velocity or a gear speed of a vehicle transmission that is necessary to achieve the first predetermined pollutant emissions profile taking into account the first actual pollutant emissions profile.

19. A display device for a motor vehicle comprising:

a memory unit coupled to an evaluation unit in which at least one of a first predetermined consumption profile and a first predetermined pollutant emissions profile is stored;

at least one of a first sensor coupled to the evaluation unit for sensing actual consumption and a second sensor coupled to the evaluation unit for sensing actual pollutant emissions; and

the evaluation unit for determining at least one of a second predetermined consumption profile based in part on the actual consumption and the first predetermined consumption profile and for determining a second pollutant emission profile based in part on the actual pollutant emissions and the first predetermined pollutant emissions profile.

20. The display device for a motor vehicle, according to claim 19, wherein the display unit comprises a graphics screen configured to display at least one of the first and second consumption profiles and the first and second pollutant emission profiles simultaneously.