"consumption" screen

Hi Valerie,

The extreme right bar is your current MPG (referred to as iMPG or instantaneous MPG). To the left of it are historical 5 minute bars representing the 5 minute average MPGs for the last 30 minutes since you started to car.

Welcome to PC,

 

I always have the consupmtion screen on to try to learn how to get better performance from the car.

 

I wish the histogram could switch between slots of 5 minutes into slots of 5 or 10 kilometers.

A time-based x-axis can be misleading. You could have a bad fuel consumption for the first 5 minutes but only drive a short distance for example.

My first 5 minutes on my daily drive are spent mostly in low-speed streets with the ICE heating up and waiting at red lights, then climbing a hill to reach the highway. I usually get an awful 9 L/100km during those 5 minutes in which I only drive 1 km. Then I get 4.0 L/100km for the next 5 minutes during which I drive 8 km.

So my average fuel consumption is 9*1/9 + 4.0*8/9 = 4.6 L/100km (51 US mpg) However the histogram shows one bar at 9, one bar at 4 which leads you to think the average was (9+4)/2 = 6.5 L/100km (36 US mpg)

 

If your Prius is displaying a consumption screen, get it on antibiotics right away. Try to keep it quarantined for a week while it is still contagious, but if you do drive, wear a mask and gloves. Heavy acceleration may produce some coughing and sputtering, but these symptoms should improve as the antibiotics take hold.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Tom

 

ValerieG,

I second what Stefx says about the information presented on the
consumption screen being somewhat confusing.

I'd even go farther and say that the whole consumption screen is very
pretty, but save for the iMPG graph, nearly useless.

For more on this vein of thought, go here:

http://priuschat.com/forums/fuel-economy/42280-mfd-energy-graph-mpg-h-better-way.html

 

You were obviously suffering from consumption Valerie...

 

Rokeby, thanks for the link to the other thread, very interesting.

So, what we need is another button to switch between time/distance x-axis, and a "zoom in/out" function to reduce or increase the resolution of the x-axis (1-3-5-10 minutes, 1-3-5-10 km/miles)

 

I've always thought the x-axis should be miles. If the y-axis were then inverted, showing gallons per mile (like in Europe it's l/100km) then the area under the curve is how much fuel you've used. That would be cool.

-CB

 

Canada also uses L/100km

One advantage, like you said, is that L/100km multiplied by distance (in hundreds of km) gives you liters.
5 L/100km on 600 km = 30 liters.

One disadvantage (compared to mpg) is that fuel economy becomes less obvious in the lower range... 4.5 L/100km doesn't sound much different than 3.5L/100km but it's still a lot. In US mpg, the same would be 53 mpg and 67mpg, it sort of amplifies the delta and makes it more obvious.

On the gas guzzler range, where 10mpg and 14mpg don't sound much different , 24 L/100km and 17 L/100km make that difference a bit more obvious.

 

Hope you get better. Heard that stuff is nasty. Just lay off the margaritas...