How to read graph

If I read correctly, it means 50watt hours. Each green car represents the amount of energy needed to light a 50watt light bulb for one hour.

 

The height of the columns actually don't indicate anything about energy; they're just the MPG that the car has gotten in the last six 5 minute intervals. The little green cars that are superimposed on the collumns indicate the amount of energy (in watt hours) that has been reclaimed by the regenerative brakes.

So, aside from the fact that they are both related to the efficiency with which your car is working, there is no direct relation between the height of the bars and the number of cars; you can have a huge bar (i.e. 75 MPG) with no cars (i.e. if you're coasting downhill at high speeds, but not using the brakes), or you can have a tiny bar with a large number of cars (i.e. if you're getting 10 MPG, but you're braking a lot).

 

Yeah. A better representation of comparative MPG among bars would be for the bars to depict MPG over 5 mile periods.
(I wouldn't be at all surprised if Toyota's marketing department had a hand in deciding its current format.)

 

The problem with 5 mile bars would be that you would lose resolution in slow city driving. At highway driving... it is now close to 5 mile bars.... but in the city a 5 mile bar would occur more slowly than I would like.

I wish the bars were thinner, and more frequent. For instance... 30 one minute bars would be preferable for me... or even 60 thin bars showing an hour.

I also would like to see a little "countdown" display... or bar (like when you install a computer program)... so that I could tell when the next bar is about to update.

/Jim

 

It would be pretty easy for the car to automatically or manually determine the mile or time interval at which to display. (Just a software change.)

I'm not sure what real utility the countdown meter would provide but it would be pretty easy for T. to program.

 

That is a nice touch. It gives you a more accurate historgram of your car's fuel economy.

If the Prius has 1min intervals too... I would care less about the "countdown timer". I just find myself looking at the display a lot wondering what my "next average" is going to be... waiting for the update.

/Jim

 

Agree with flynz4, that is a nice touch. 5 minutes is just too long for mostly city driving.
I'll bet the '07 Prius has the 1 minute interval. You heard it here first.

 

If you're interested in accuracy, "miles" rather than "minutes" is the way to go.
MPG, miles per gallon, does not have a time component.

 

I think that your point is accurate... but "miles" are too coarse for my taste. I would also be happy with 0.1 mile increments as well...

Still... showing MPG as function of time is a very valid way of conveying FE information... but I would be happy with either. I just think that more granularity would be an improvement.

/Jim

 

Wow I was confused too about the consumption screen and the bars and I am STILL confused! Can anyone explain it again in easier terms? B)

 

How about simply "the average miles per gallon in the last 5 minutes"? And as new 5 minutes intervals come in on the right side, the older ones are pushed over to the left.

The fact that the height of each column is proportionate to the average miles per gallon makes it easy to see trends by simply looking at the tops of the bars like any histogram.

-Roger

 

I'd actually like an option to switch between the 5-minute view and one with "tenths of a gallon" in the x-axis (because with a constant number of gallons in the x-axis, the average height of the bars would correspond to the average mpg).