Anticipatory driving assistance for energy efficient driving

Due to the rising ecological awareness as well as the scarcity of fuel, associated with the rising price of petrol, the demand for economically ideal working vehicles rose. Car manufacturers put a lot of effort in improving the car body, the engine, or the power train of cars. However, the driver can save fuel and money by learning a more efficient driving style, too. Assistance systems can help drivers to learn a more economic driving style and drive anticipating. In this paper an Anticipatory Energy Saving Assistant (ANESA¹) is presented. It is helping the driver to drive anticipating and, thus, driving more energy efficient. For this purpose, ANESA is giving the driver precisely timed commands regarding the velocity restrictions upcoming. By approaching a velocity restriction freewheeling, the energy loss of braking is avoided. The advices of ANESA are based on the freewheeling characteristic of the car, given the current speed and the elevation profile of the track ahead, and the upcoming velocity restrictions, which can be road signs or sharp turns. Evaluations in a Driving Simulator showed, that drivers saved 12.97% of energy in average using ANESA by the more usage of 2.53% of time. The tests showed as well, that using ANESA drivers saved 8.06% more energy than trying to save energy by their own abilities.