For Prius newbies I thought it would be important to point out some of the various ways your mpg could be affected by road conditions. Often times new Prius owners will complain that their mpg isn't as high as they expected or is lower than other owners. One of the biggest factors (besides short trips) in average mpg is elevation changes and speed. I posted about an Android App that measures and maps your elevation and speed over time. The app can help you determine if your poor mpg is due to your commute route or something else. This is just one of many tools you can use to assist in maximizing fuel economy as well as diagnose issues or answer questions you may have about your mpg numbers. Other tools include Torque OBDII App and of course a ScanGaugeII Here is an example of the information provided by the App. *multiply elevation (y-axis) by x10 For more info on the App see my earlier post: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...artphone-app-help-fuel-economy-questions.html
I have My Tracks too, but the elevation data is almost worthless. I can do a loop of a couple miles and it shows I gained 150 feet in elevation. Little hills are interpreted as big hills and vice versa. Maybe in places like California where you have really big hills and you just need a rough idea it works, but here in Illinois it just isn't sensitive enough. The speed and distance measurements seem fine, but on my Android cell phone the graph shows in kilometers when really it's miles. The chart data is correct. I'll do an update now (I'm on version 30) and see if anything has changed.
What does your GPS show for sensitivity? Most of the time I am between 15ft. and 35ft. so I expect some errors. Speed may cause errors too. It's close enough for me as it shows a general trend upward even before I hit the big hill. I could see your point though. Without a great GPS signal and with very small topographic change the App is fairly useless except for average speed measurements which wasn't available on the GenII Prius but is standard on the GenIII.
