After we featured Fiat's ecoDrive, one of our spotters alerted us to Honda's Ecological Drive Assist System. Called Eco Assist for short, the system gives feedback on driving techniques, aiming to help consumers save fuel. Eco Assist also helps improve fuel optimization and battery charging. Recognizing drivers' love of a good challenge, Honda moves the goalposts by rating them on the eco-friendliness of their driving style. At the end of each journey, the instrument panel displays how well they did.

One of the system's smarter features is that it gives feedback by changing colour in real time, avoiding distracting statistics and numbers. Fuel-saving, smooth acceleration and braking are rewarded with a green glow, and aggressive starts and stops are reprimanded in blue. A positive alternative to the dearth of dry save-the-planet communications, the system's ambient communication makes its message easier to absorb: helpful for those multi-taskers who spend their journeys making phone calls, revising their routes and flipping through MP3s. Honda hopes the constant form of feedback will turn drivers' good intentions into subconscious habits.

The system will be included in Honda's American Insight hybrid as of spring 2009. Given that the easiest way to save the planet is to change our behaviour, how could your business put customers in touch with their actions? (Related: Visualizing energy use.)

Website: www.hondanews.com/categories/1097/releases/4878

Spotted by: Treehugger via Casey Palmer

Helping drivers think twice before putting the pedal to the metal, Fiat has developed a new system that gives customers the insight they need to drive in more a sustainable way. ecoDrive processes driving data collected via Blue&Me, an in-car communications device developed by Microsoft. Users plug a standard USB drive into their car's Blue&Me port to gather information on acceleration, deceleration, gear changes and speed throughout the drive.

They then upload the data to their computer, where it's analysed by ecoDrive software to produce relevant tips for driving efficiency, like braking more gently into corners or maintaining a constant speed on straights. Drivers can also share their own tips and ecoDrive experiences using the ecoVille online community. Launched by Fiat in October 2008, ecoDrive is currently only available for the Fiat 500 and Grande Punto, but will work with any model featuring Blue&Me from 2009. Fiat claims the software can cut emissions and fuel consumption by up to 15%, meaning a lower carbon footprint and gas bill for drivers. An obvious improvement would be immediate feedback while a driver is behind the wheel, but we're sure that's in the works ;-)

Fiat and Microsoft's ecoDrive collaboration mirrors the successful partnership between Apple and Nike that runners can use to track and soundtrack their runs, enabling them to review their performance when they're back at their computers. As eco-awareness continues to build (and once energy prices start climbing again), consumers will become increasingly interested in tracking their personal energy use. We're confident that many other embedded eco-metric devices will follow, so if you're in manufacturing--now's the time to start researching and developing. (Related: Visualising energy use.)

Website: www.fiat.co.uk/ecodrive
Contact: www.fiat.co.uk/content/?id=3046

Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz

We've written about brain gyms for baby boomers and insurance discounts for drivers of cars with GPS devices. Combining a bit of both ideas, insurance provider Allstate recently announced a pilot program that could ultimately lead to reduced insurance rates for senior drivers who play brain-building video games.

Beginning in Pennsylvania--home to the fifth largest population of Allstate customers aged 50 to 75, the company says--Allstate is offering the program free to more than 100,000 drivers in that age group to test the impact of cognitive training on driving safety. The program uses InSight, a video software package from Posit Science that's designed to reverse age-related cognitive decline and improve the visual-processing skills needed for safe driving. Five games make up InSight, including Jewel Diver, which tests the ability to keep track of multiple moving objects at one time. Among the results of using the software, Posit says, are a reduction of dangerous driving manoeuvres by up to 40 percent, an improvement in stopping distance by an average of 22 feet when travelling at 55 miles per hour and a reduction in crash risk of up to 50 percent. In the Pennsylvania tests, which will run through March, Allstate will encourage participating older drivers to devote at least 10 hours to the training exercises. It will then track accident rates for the groups that did and didn't use the software. If the results validate Posit Science's claims, Allstate says it hopes to offer discounts to older drivers nationwide who use the software.

As the aging of the baby boom generation leads to increased numbers of older drivers on the road, using brain exercises to improve safety makes good sense. Of course, the program could also help Allstate identify and reward its safest--and therefore most profitable--customers. Sounds like a win-win proposition for other insurers to watch--and emulate!

Website: media.allstate.com/releases/4461-allstate-examines-brain-fitness
Contact: kpose@allstate.com

Spotted by: PSFK via Matthew Cua

Teen drivers are more likely to speed and less likely to wear seat belts than older drivers are, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, causing their parents no end of concern. Last year we wrote about Safeco's Teensurance solution, combining auto insurance with GPS-enabled parental monitoring, and now auto giant Ford is adding another control option to give parents some peace of mind.

Ford's new MyKey system allows parents to limit speed and audio volume, improve safety-belt usage and provide early low-fuel warnings on the cars their teens drive. Using the vehicle message center, which updates Ford's SecuriLock passive anti-theft system, parents begin by programming the transponder chip on their teen's key. When that key is inserted into the ignition, the system then identifies the MyKey code and enables the selected driving modes. Among the programmable options is persistent Ford Beltminder with audio mute, which not only sounds a six-second reminder chime every minute but also mutes the stereo system until the safety belt is buckled. Audio volume in general can be limited to 44 percent of the total possible, and parents can set an 80-mph limit on the car's top speed, with speed alert chimes at 45, 55 or 65 mph. Rather than a warning at 50 miles to empty, MyKey also provides a low-fuel warning when there are still 75 miles to go. And when the MyKey is in the ignition, safety features including Ford's Park Aid, BLISTM (Blind Spot Information System) with Cross Traffic Alert, and traction control systems cannot be deactivated. MyKey will debut next year as standard equipment on the 2010 Ford Focus and be added soon afterwards to many other Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models.

Of course, as most parents know, anything that gives adults peace of mind is likely to meet with resistance in their teens. On the other hand, many parents surveyed for Ford by Harris Interactive said they'd let their kids drive more often if they were using MyKey--a fact that caused the proportion of teens who said they dislike the feature to drop from 67 to 36 percent. Proving once again that a spoonful of sugar can help any medicine go down--help that happen, and you'll get some spoonfuls yourself! ;-)

Website: media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=29172
Contact: http://www.ford.com/owner-services/customer-support/contact-ford

Spotted by: Zena Hockley

Myriad challenges face disabled drivers and their caretakers as they navigate the streets in their daily lives, not the least of which is finding destinations and parking accommodations that are handicapped-accessible. A new GPS navigation system from UK-based Navevo, however, focuses squarely on helping such drivers find the locations and parking they need.

Launched just a few weeks ago, BBNav includes many of the features found on standard satellite navigation systems, but it also adds information tailored to support holders of the UK's Blue Badge for handicapped drivers. Through a partnership with PIE (Public Information Exchange), the UK's leading publisher of disabled parking guides, BBNav offers comprehensive data about disabled-accessible parking and local council Blue Badge concessions, as well as more than 20,000 points of interest suitable for people with disabilities. Featuring a 4.3-inch-wide touch screen and Bluetooth hands-free calling, BBNav includes a database of 3,500 disabled-accessible car parks and more than 10,000 Blue Badge parking spaces that can reduce the time and uncertainty involved in searching for a place to park the car. Colour-coded and numbered icons are displayed on the map while en route, making it easy to identify parking lots as well as any waiting times or restrictions, and most spots are graded from 1 to 3, indicating the degree of accessibility to those with varying degrees of impairment. BBNav's mapping has also been colour-coded to reflect local rules for Blue Badge holders, so users can easily determine whether they can park legally on yellow lines, for example. The result? On a visit to an unfamiliar town, BBNav can tell drivers where to park, where the public toilets with disabled facilities are and which accommodations offer support for the disabled, among other key pieces of information. Due to be available next month, BBNav will come complete with street-level mapping for 150 major cities and towns in the UK, seven-digit postcode lookup and a six-month free trial of safety camera alerts. Pricing will be GBP 199.99.

Some 650 million people around the globe--or about 10 percent of the world's population--live with a disability, constituting the world's largest minority, according to 2006 data from the United Nations. As populations age, those numbers--and their collective spending power--will only increase. How can your brand better serve this segment of the population...? (Related: Network for people with disabilities.)

Website: www.bbnav.co.uk
Contact: sales@navevo.com

Spotted by: Zena Hockley