FUEL CONSUMPTION SAVING DRIVE SUPPORTING DEVICE

• US 20100090818A1
• Filed: 12/25/2007
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Oe, Yoshihiro, Sekiyama, Hiroaki
• Granted Patent: US 8,576,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/439
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/174 Economic driving
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/28 characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0236 for economical driving
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 2200/0625 Fuel consumption, e.g. measured in fuel liters per 100 kms or miles per gallon
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 9/02 wherein the other variable is the speed of a vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/84 Data processing systems or methods, management, administration

Abstract

A fuel consumption saving drive supporting device which calculates a mileage of each driver and informs each driver of advice based on an increase or a decrease of the calculated mileage is disclosed. The fuel consumption saving drive supporting device extracts a drive operation of the driver or a drive condition of a vehicle of the driver for increasing the mileage, and informs the driver of the advice in the drive operation or the drive condition corresponding to the extracted drive operation or the extracted drive condition.

Claims

1. A fuel consumption saving drive supporting device which calculates a mileage and informs a driver of advice based on an increase or a decrease of the calculated mileage, comprising:

a monitoring unit which monitors a relationship between an actual mileage and a drive operation in time series;

an advice database which stores advice for the drive operation to increase the mileage by being related to the drive operation of the driver; and

an informing unit which reads the advice corresponding to the drive operation relating to a mileage increase or a mileage decrease and informs the driver of the advice corresponding to the drive operation relating to the mileage increase or the mileage decrease when the increase or the decrease of the mileage is detected by the monitoring unit.

2. The fuel consumption saving drive supporting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the mileage is individually calculated in each on a general road and on a motor highway, and the advice is individually informed to the driver in each on the general road and on the motor highway.

3. The fuel consumption saving drive supporting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the drive operation is detected from at least one of a braking operation, a position shifting operation of transmission gears, a vehicle velocity, engine revolutions, and an accelerating and decelerating operation.

4. The fuel consumption saving drive supporting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the informing unit informs the driver of the advice corresponding to the drive operation which has caused the mileage to decrease based on the drive operation detected by the monitoring unit when the monitored mileage has been decreased, and stores the drive operation which has caused the mileage to decrease, the mileage, and the advice; and

when the monitoring unit dose not detect the drive operation which has caused the mileage to decrease within a predetermined period after giving the advice to the driver, the informing unit informs the driver that the drive operation which has caused the mileage to decrease is not detected and the mileage has been increase.

5. The fuel consumption saving drive supporting device as claimed in claim 4, wherein:

the monitoring unit detects a drive condition from one or more of an air conditioner operation, oil deterioration information, tire air pressure information, a wearing degree of the tire, an exhaust gas condition, a vehicle height, cooling water temperature, lubrication oil temperature, road inclination, the number of persons in the vehicle, and laden weight on the vehicle; and

the informing unit informs the driver of the advice including the drive condition detected by the monitoring unit when the mileage has been increased or decreased.