Apparently some guys at MIT are trying to use image recognition on an iPhone pointing at traffic lights to determine when to start and stop the engine of a car to get better fuel efficiency. I can't help but think they're going about this the wrong way, and the problem has already been solved with the Prius - if the wheels aren't turning, the engine ain't running.
I grew up in Cambridge MA and had a couple of friends at MIT so I have spent some time on campus - to make a broad generalization, the folks at MIT are smart as hell when it comes to this sort of stuff so if they are working on it there must be something to it.
Me too. Sadly, they love the challenge of an intellectual problem solved in a cool way, more than they love a simple non-technical solution.
As a systems engineer, I can tell you there will be big problems with this sort of system UNLESS the traffic light manufacturers get on board with special signals (which is really MUCH more elegant than this solution. Example: Tooling along the interstate and a semi cuts you off and has to put on the brakes. Giant red light: engine shuts off? Driving through NYC at night. Red and green and yellow lights everywhere. The engine constantly starting and stopping for no apparent reason. This has been a problem with voice recognition, since it tries to interpret every sound it hears, regardless if it is part of the command sequence.
Like the story of NASA spending so much to develope a pen that can write in zero G, when the Russians simply went with pencils. I can see how this can be better than today's current start-stop systems. A person who is light on the brake at light can have the engine come on before the light changes. Something to keep in mind when you come across similiar types of stories and research that leaves you wondering why they bother. Most grad students have to do some type of original research.
it's a good idea. I often observe my wife driving toward a red light with the engine still running, and sometimes putting down a lot (for the prius, anyway) of power. the instant i see a red light i lift off to kill the ICE, coast, and then monitor if i need to add or remove momentum from that point. for cars with basic stop start it would help too, since the laggy restart is annoying.
Its more about slowing down to avoid stopping. Regen and engine off help, but not as much as not stopping in the first place. Great story, unfortunately its an urban legend. The pen was patented using no Nasa money, and the russian space agency uses them too. You never know what hairbrained idea will actually work, and even the failures can be learning experiences. That's why acedmia is so great. Remember the Fed Ex business plan got a low grade, because the professor thought who is going to spend a lot more to get a package faster
Kinda figured. I started wondering about the graphite dust and broken pencil tips floating around in a ship while typing that. But hey, even fiction can be instructive.
ound: It would seem that some of us haven't worked close enough with engineers ... mit ones, or otherwise: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw]Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse "Gallopin' Gertie" - YouTube[/ame] Yes - a very broad generalization .
Damn! It was such a great story! As for when to start and stop the engine, better to dump the engine altogether and just use an electric motor, which has no start-stop issues. My new car has so much torque it throws your head back, and still uses something like one-half or one-third the energy of a Prius. And its energy is domestic rather than foreign. And here in WA, it's hydro, so no carbon.
Also, at the start of the space program, there were a lot of electro-mechanical components in the control systems that were exposed and could get small pieces of lead trapped in them, thus stopping or slowing or disabling a critical system, especially in zero G. So having a workable pen was worth more than the urban legend amount that was spent on it. Of course the manufacturer developed the pen, and NASA merely bought them as has been pointed out. It wasn't until after the Apollo 1 command module fire that the parts were enclosed. Those oil-switches in cheap pocket calculators were developed after that fire to prevent open arcing in oxygen enriched artificial atmospheres.
Any story you have doubts about has been addressed at snopes.com. Any and all including the NASA magical space pen story
Plus, the common misconceptions page ([ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions"]List of common misconceptions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]) is handy for correcting some nonsense. The page hit count jumped dramatically thanks to the xkcd referring to it (xkcd: Misconceptions).
Can anyone give me input about extended warranty? I have picked up the extended car maintenance but if the Prius is warrantied for 36,000 miles, why can't I buy a policy later, rather than pay for it now?
Most of them. I come across a few, mostly doctored images, that haven't been described yet at snopes. But it is a great resource that certain people should make use of, to be sure.
