Greenest Route with SatNav

Researchers at the Lund Institute of Technology are attempting to incorporate green driving options into satellite navigation systems. By including factors like road quality, driving speed and typical traffic flows, the researchers hope to decrease the amount of gasoline needed for travel.

The new system uses existing databases and already has shown promising results. Several test runs have reduced gasoline consumption by an average of 8.2%. Imagine if the entire world had one of these things. UPS is already using similar technology with it's fleet, but the researchers at Lund are hoping to make the product available to all.

However, street quality measurements, and real-time traffic flow data are very hard to come by. Researchers had all of these numbers for the roads where the system was tested, but creating a world-wide database of these factors would be prohibitively expensive.

An 8% gasoline savings for in-city driving could make the system marketable to early adopters in the delivery industry. Which just might bring down costs for the rest of us. Via NewScientist