Gen III (2010+) Prius Owner Videos

There's a loooong thread featuring Prius owner photos.

Why not one for video too?

Here's my contribution to get us started...



First Drive

This was my very first drive attempt to capture scenery & display video from my 2010 Prius. Little did I know my late start that particular day, with clouds rolling in and the sun just having dipped below the horizon, provided the perfect lighting conditions. Differences between the roads outside and the refresh-rate of the screen part of the display present exposure challenges. Reflection of light itself can too. Then of course, there's issues with that wide of a lens as well as unexpected detail that gets picked up when filming in HD. The ultimate goal was to capture all the action a Prius driver normally observes, then speed it up 500% for more entertaining yet informative playback. It worked out really nice.

Night Drive

This was my second attempt to capture all the activity a Prius driver sees, but this time using 2 separate HD cameras. With all the difficulties light from outside causes, the decision was to try it at night. I had no idea what it would take to synchronize 2 individual videos or how nice an overlay would look after scaling & cropping. And of course, there's always the challenge of screen-flicker if too dark or washout of detail if too bright. It ended up working extremely well, though the rendering of the final file took almost 12 hours. I especially like how the new GoPro camera could be mounted to the windshield upside-down with a suction-cup mount in exactly the position needed, allowing me avoid both dashboard-vibration and lens-bend.

Sunset Drive

This Prius video capture was my first attempt with 2 cameras during daylight hours. I really got lucky with this particular drive too. The sunset just happened to be a colorful, turning a deep pink as I began the return part of my round-trip drive. You can see the colored sky especially well near the ending of that drive. However, if you look close, you can also spot the smear of the bug I hit on the way back. Fortunately, it's on the far right of the scene. That could have been much worse. This time, I placed a small piece of cardboard above screen to help prevent moments of bright light from shining in. That worked well, but was obvious that filming in bright sunlight was going to pose a lot more of a challenge than I had anticipated. Fortunately, it was already dark this time... though that's hard to see based upon how well the scenery camera compensated. Notice everyone's headlights are on.

Afternoon Drive

This was the result of my Prius drive in bright sunlight. I wanted to capture a blue sky and all the green of the trees outside. That meant almost covering up the display entirely, preventing most all the light from shining in... leaving a tunnel open for me to see the speedometer. That worked fairly well. It was just about perfect. But the placement of the camera allowed for some vibration and bending of the image. Capture of the outside scenery looks fantastic... despite picking up some vivid reflection from the black fabric covering the dashboard. It's too bad the zoom on that camera got messed up this time. Something always goes wrong with that many variables at play. Fortunately, the consequence of that was just the hood of the Prius showing where I normally place the display overlay anyway. It was a nice drive and the average was 62.4 MPG at the halfway point. The return trip dropped that to 55.8 MPG... an outcome certainly worthy of noting on video.

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Re: 2010-2011 Prius Owner Videos

Trip "A" got reset so observers could see just the progress of that particular drive along the way.

Trip "B" was left as is, so you could still see average from previous drives, the overall result including warm-ups, and whatever other effects real-world conditions through at it.

You can see both. I step through the menu during the drive and at the end.
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Re: 2010-2011 Prius Owner Videos

You'll discover ECO also makes it easier to engage & stay at 0 RPM for the engine. There's the added benefit of the optimized A/C and Heater operation as well.
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Re: 2010-2011 Prius Owner Videos

Here in Minnesota, the benefit of using ECO is more apparent. It drops the coolant threshold from 145°F to 114°F, which keeps the engine off much longer when the heater is running. That makes the savings more than you'd notice with your warmer winters.
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Re: 2010-2011 Prius Owner Videos

So... do future PHV owner videos count?



Prius PHV - Hill Climb & Hard Acceleration

Back in August 2010, I had some opportunities to get behind the wheel of a PHV model (plug-in) Prius. Little did I know my few random bits of video footage would be referred back to later on like this. Had I known, lots more would have been filmed. Oh well. In this, you can see how I effortlessly climbed up the residential hill using only electricity. Then after getting out of the neighborhood, I dropped the pedal all the way to the floor to see what the system would do when hard acceleration was needed. The gas engine joined to help, then shut off when going down the hill afterward. I later discovered climbing from a dead stop to 40 MPH up that same hill could be done with only electricity; just don't drop the pedal like I did in this clip.

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Re: 2010-2011 Prius Owner Videos

Here's another... for your education and viewing pleasure:


Prius PHV - Night Cruise

This late night cruise on the highway with the PHV model (plug-in) Prius shows how seemless the blending of electric-only and engine-assist operation can be. Watch the video closely as the engine stops running and the MPG average continues to rise. The car-shaped symbol in the middle of the "Hybrid System Indicator" screen of the dashboard display illuminates with an "EV" inside when the gas-engine is off. You can see that transistion both at the beginning & end of the video. It's a paradigm-shift to witness such high efficiency being achieved so easily like this. Think of the potential for change this offers.

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Re: 2010-2011 Prius Owner Videos

Here's one more, which sadly is the last of my all-too-brief caught-on-video for sharing experiences with the PHV last summer...


Prius PHV - First Commute

This brief clip was from my first commute with the PHV model (plug-in) Prius. It shows that drive just as I pull away from the first stoplight. The following two blocks along with the ramp were all uphill. You can see how effortless it was to accelerate to 50 mph using only electricity, despite the incline. That "EV" symbol in the center of the efficiency screen indicates whether engine is on or off. When lots of power is needed, the engine will run. While cruising on the highway, the engine will stop entirely when going 100 km/h (62.1 mph) or slower. When faster, the engine will spin and consume fuel as needed, in an extremely efficient state that results in very high MPG. Driving around the suburbs, the engine will typically not be used.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxbHPCr-K-Y"]YouTube - ‪Prius PHV - First Commute‬‏[/ame]

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Re: 2010-2011 Prius Owner Videos

Continued improvement with the filming of the 2010 Prius as I drive encouraged me to attempt the capture of a commute to & from work. Driving at the the sun in both directions meant new lighting challenges in addition to the usual video-related difficulties. Setup for the display camera worked well, no external light problems anymore. Reflection from the dashboard illuminated the windshield at times, affecting the outside view. But a new camera mount I have on order should help with that. It's lots of trial & error, including afterward with the rendering process.

Fortunately, the content itself is great. 71.1 MPG for the leisurely commute taking the scenic route to work that nice summer morning. 58.8 MPG on the commute back home. It's all here for you to see...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLUl-MoMF9I"]YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]

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Re: 2010-2011 Prius Owner Videos

If it matches the format of the main forum... "Gen III (2010+)"
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Re: 2010-2011 Prius Owner Videos

My experimenting with that continues... The GoPro camera (for the display capture) started with a window-suction mount, then ended up just a simple sticker mount on dashboard. The regular HD camera (for the road capture) started with a GorillaPod shaped & weighted down to sit securely on the dashboard. That will be replaced with a double-cup window-suction mount.

Each attempt becomes easier to setup and the quality of the capture increases. I'll share details of my setup when the experiementing is complete.
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Here's the result of a month's worth of experimenting...








It's actually 3 seperate mounts combined, a double-cup for the camera, a single-cup to prevent arm vibration, and a bar-clamp to connect them. Along with a small piece foam pipe-insulation near the lens on top for absolute shock-proofing, the entire setup is rock solid. It only takes a few moments to setup too.

My price (which includes the package discount I got with my GoPro) was $20.99 for the single and $13.99 for the clamp. The double I got for $65.90 from Amazon.

Lastly, notice the tiny black square in the center of the dashboard. That's sticker-mount used to hold my GoPro camera I use for the capturing the display on video.
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