Patent ID: 9428124
Filing Date: 2016-08-30
CPC Classification: B60N,B60R,B60W,G16Z,Y02T

Claim Text:
1. A process of monitoring fuel economy comprising: providing a vehicle having a plurality of environmental sensors including a temperature sensor, a pitch sensor, a roll angle sensor, a grade sensor, an altitude sensor and a payload sensor; providing information from the plurality of environmental sensors to a controller including an environmental temperature in which the vehicle is operating, a vehicle angle of incline, a payload, and an altitude in which the vehicle is operating; providing additional vehicle operation data to the controller; determining theoretical maximum fuel efficiency under the conditions that the vehicle is experiencing based upon the information from the environmental sensors including the environmental temperature in which the vehicle is operating, the vehicle angle of incline, the payload, and the altitude in which an automotive vehicle is operating and the information of vehicle operation data; following said step of determining the theoretical maximum fuel efficiency, providing sensory feedback in real time via the controller to a seat of the operator to inform the operator of behavior which has an adverse impact on the fuel economy of the vehicle based on a comparison of the maximum theoretical fuel efficiency to an actual fuel efficiency of the vehicle.