We like sheep... on the ECO Dashboard

I was kidding about the internet speed part.

Mine was set to Normal one time and no matter what score I got on the screen, it would not give me more than 81 on the app. I had accidentally hit the button. Are you using the heater, defroster, engine coming on, etc.

 

Haha, you got me there. Hope all is well with you and your family. Thanks for the info.

 

Thank you. And the same to you and your family.

 

Hello again to those keeping record of their echo scores. For some reason, after owning my car 2 1/2 years, the last four months have been killing my echo driving score. As far as I know, I really haven’t changed my driving habits. is it possible that something has changed in the programming of the eco-driving score by Toyota? Anyone else notice their scores going down?

 

According to this, here are some explanations...

• The Prius reaches 51 mpg in the city and 48 mpg on the highway.
• The Toyota Prius emits 71 percent less CO2 than a Hummer H3, and 20 percent less methane gas than an adult sheep.

Later edit:
I just found here on this forum TOTAL description of this...

 

I ran into a similar situation after my 2017 Prime Advanced had a service where the 12V battery was disconnected and another time after a in dealer firmware update resetting some settings to defaults. Here's the deal:

The "Predictive Deceleration Support" got enabled. It tracks driving patterns and uses GPS when it (automagically) recognizes a location where you would decelerate. For example coming up to the turn before the street where I live. When you get there the ECOCoach display drops to zero instantly. Not so bad to encourage efficient driving but the ECO ranking considers any lag time getting off the accelerator like punching the accelerator for a second or two which really messes up a drive's score.

Good news is this is easy to turn off (see the Naviagation manual on page 259 (in the 2019 manual) for how to disable) Search for "Predictive Deceleration Support" in the manual for information on how it works (same for the main owner's manual).

Figuring this out and turning it off restored my ECO scoring potential. During other services I have had my Prime left in "Normal" driving mode which I didn't notice right away. Might be worth a check, but that's a lot more obvious than the predictive deceleration support setting.

Hope this is helpful!

 

Thanks Sesullivan, that’s exactly the type of information I was looking for.

 

Went to page 259 in the manual. Evidently my car does not have that option to turn on or turn off. I have a 2017 Prius prime advanced. That area is blank on my screen. See attachment.

 

Found out how to turn off predictive deceleration today. On the 11 inch screen when the map is displayed, in the upper left-hand corner push options, then map information and you will see predictive deceleration. I had to turn that back on, then go to page 259 of the navigation manual, follow those steps, then the option showed up and there I unchecked it.

 

As Red Green said, "And it's just that easy!"

 

My eco dashboard is not updating. It shows last update on June 18 drive. And when it charged that night I did not receive an email. Today's drive is also not showing up. I've submitted a tech question, My car is a 2018 prime advanced model and it's always worked. Seems like some kind of communication issue. Perhaps server side at toyota?

 

My eco dashboard is still updating properly as of this Saturday, June 20.

 

Since I have been able to turn off the predictive deceleration, the problem with the dark blue line disappearing is finally gone. I have only been fighting this for a year now. Thanks again for the info.

 

Thank you. It's never too late to learn... Your suggestion prompted me to immediately go to the garage and check my setting. Sure enough, it was enabled! I have wondered why my ECO prompt zipped to zero as I approached within about a tenth of a mile to my street. I have been getting around this by turning the cruise on just before I reach this point. Now I know why. There are other points on my frequently-traveled routes where this happens. I can't wait to see how this will affect my ECO scores now. Thanks again.

 

Have you checked to see if your "Safety Connect" contract is expired? I think most of the fancier entune features are tied to an active Safety Connect contract. I renewed mine a few months ago. Check this at https://www.myentune.com/features/ev/evSettings.

 

Something I haven't seen commented on here before. Since the shutdown of everything in March my daily commute is gone, so driving miles have gone way down and I rarely run out of EV range. So almost every month since March I've been able to check off all the top boxes -- two sheep, oranges, rainbow, top 20% in mpg and ECO (usually top 5%), etc. But twice now, at the end of June and again the end of Oct, after what looks like it should have made all the marks, beginning of the next month it reported for "ECO challenge": 0/5. Is there a minimum number of miles traveled before it will count anything (it was about 450 miles last month)? Is there a blacklist?

 

I wonder how the app will change with the 2022/2023 hydrogen powered plug-in Prius? Will the sheep bulge larger and float higher towards the clouds the more hydrogen you convert to EV mode? Can the fruit on the trees even handle hydrogen, or will they rot and drop to the ground? Will the blue sky turn a yellow-ish brown hue? So many questions and no answers as yet.

 

After spending 4 years and 4 months enjoying the joy and self torture of driving my Prius Prime advanced as efficiently as possible I've decided it's time to revert to (more) normal driving patters. For the last 9 months (at least) My PriusPrimeSES has been the top ranked with an eco driving score of 99 most months and one at 100. Now maybe my good long term competitors like Buzzhead will continue on to keep eco-driving obsession going.

During these last 4+ years I've typically spent about $40/year on gas; running the tank empty by using it to charge the battery twice a year. What the manual recommends to keep the gas from getting "stale". I'd be surprised if in 4 years I'd run the gas engine for more than 50 or 60 hours.

During my first year with my Prime when I was figuring out the whole eco driving thing I'm sure I sent at least one or two people stuck behind me into therapy, but I did get 46 miles out of a single charge that summer! In the following years summer range usually topped out around 39 or 40 miles on a charge.

If I was going to drive electric all the time why wouldn't I have just gotten pure EV? Range anxiety and I was so happy with my 2007 Prius II I'd developed an affection for the Prius line. With the big screen the Prius Prime was like an affordable "poor person's Tesla". I am pretty sure my next car will be a pure EV and with at least a 300 mile range. Not sure when that will happen. I want battery tech to improve. You know solid state batteries, LiFePO, vertical carbon nanotube cathodes and various technologies that look promising including Lithium-Sulphur. And full charge times under an hour if you can get enough AMP's from a high power DC charger.

After all this time why stop now and go back to more normal driving? I have had a lot of satisfaction from driving very efficiently, but I'd like to feel free to really accelerate into highway traffic and travel at the same speed as other traffic. It time to change from the satisfaction of getting the most out of my little car and move to more of enjoying the experience of driving again. And maybe using the heat, seat heaters and even the steering wheel heater (I did try it once).

So that's my report on 4 years of being an eco driving fanatic. I expect I'll still tend to drive efficiently but not to the extent of denying myself the thrill of the drive itself. Here are my last screen grabs from the Entune app.

Happy Driving!