Gen III (2010+) Prius Owner Videos

Here's two more...



Prius - Fast Commute (to)

This is my highway route, the faster commute option with my 2010 Prius. Efficiency is lower due to the speed, but 62.6 MPG is hardly anything to complain about... especially on such a beautiful summer morning. The larger & heavier HD video camera still presents a few challenges to overcome, most obvious is the vibration. Dealing with reflected light is much improved though, thanks to a polarizing filter. Needless to say, I'm quite pleased with the results from the travel at 70 MPH.

Prius - Fast Commute (from)

Commuting back home from work with the 2010 Prius on that beautiful summer day, I swapped out my HD camera for scenery with another for comparison. The weight of it combined with the front placement of the tripod mount (rather than centered) made the vibration even worse. Video capable of capturing every little detail isn't always the best choice. Regardless, capture of the hybrid information is working well and it certainly is nice seeing 55.8 MPG after more than half of the drive on the highway at 70 MPH.

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I've been driving Prius for almost 11 years now. So, there probably is a heightened awareness for efficiency at play. Tire pressure is 44/42 PSI. The tires are Goodyear Assurance "Fuel-Max". No wax for quite awhile. ECO may be the key, especially when the A/C is on. I never use Normal and Power is only on rare occasions. EV is handy, but I haven't been using that in the videos lately.
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The experimenting continues...



Prius - Afternoon Drive 2

This is the best yet; my first attempt to capture the 2010 Prius in action with 2 GoPro cameras went well. It was a beautiful day, so experimenting with a wider angle lens than in the past made for a good morning... which ended up early afternoon by the time all the trial & error was complete. The GoPro deals with vibration much better than regular HD video cameras, even when played back at 1080p with fast moving scenery. I'm quite pleased with that setup. Anywho, the drive itself through outer most reach of the suburbs was an efficient one, as you can see. The resulting 54.6 MPG speaks for itself.

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At 1/5 the current speed, I couldn't imagine people watching in through the end. :bored: Some could miss the point of how the efficiency is achieved too. Faster makes it easier to notice.

Finding copyright free music that people would enjoy hearing that would also be fitting is more of a challenge than I'm interested in. There's lots of photos and other priorities still. :alien:
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The same as everyone else. But at 35k, they weren't good enough for the heavy spring snow. So, I replaced them with the Fuel-Max... which seem to have provided a minor efficiency improvement.

Back to the topic at hand, here's the setup I used for the latest video. It's a GoPro in the window now, a tiny wearable light-weight waterproof HD video camera that can also take photos automatically. The triple suction-cup rig keeps it very steady.







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Time to start filming again. Here's a new one:


Prius - Suburb Drive

It was a beautiful fall day, time for a drive with the Prius to test out the new arrangement for mounting cameras. The hope was to make filming setup faster & easier. Unexpectedly, the footage captured turned out quite nice... plenty good for serving as a basis of comparison with the PHV (plug-in model) later. Next is reducing the windshield glare and better shielding the speedometer cluster from stray light. Anywho, the drive itself was on roads no faster than 45 mph and there were quite a few stoplights. In others words, it was the typical suburb drive. The temperature was 55°F. The distance was 15.6 miles. The resulting efficiency was 61.7 MPG.

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That's the plan. I really wanted to squeeze in this particular drive too, before winter set in. Hopefully, I'll be getting my PHV before temperatures get that warm again... just before Earth Day.

The GoPro camera is a dream for setup compared to a traditional video camera. It's small size & weight, combined with the specialized firmware, help reduce vibration too.

And since filming that, I have actually figured out how to get its unique case to accommodate a polarizing-filter. I noticed that it just happens to match the 37mm dimensions. Kind of a silly solution, but I was able to hot-glue a filter onto the lens housing. Creativity from determination paid off. That means better video to come!
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Since it takes less than 2 minutes to warm up and it takes me quite a bit longer to setup both cameras, there's no way to start with it cold.

That actually swings favor for the PHV, since I'll be able to drive there and halfway back before the engine will fire up. And at that point, the vehicle will be in motion rather than just idling on the street.

Of course, I do intend on showing y'all what winter in Minnesota looks like. So, that cold will pretty wash out the 103°F coolant temperature it takes for the engine to shut off while setting up.
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Ready to order my plug-in Prius online, I prepared for a coffee run in the meantime. Looking at the thermometer changed that though. It was only 18°F, a beautiful sunny morning, I was yearning to test out the polarizing-filter augmentation, and I had the time available. So, that's what I did. It was another drive through the suburbs, but well below freezing. Stay tuned for the video. I'm quite curious how it turned out... but going to be preoccupied with the PHV activity about to commence very soon.
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Sorry, but that's not going to happen from me (online anyway). The sped up file was 564 MB. Five times larger isn't realistic for hosting.
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I don't hypermile either. I'm one of those "Just Drive It" owners. So there really isn't much to gleen from me in that respect.
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