2013-01-27

Happy breathing baby!

Hybrid cars are always said to be about fuel economy, but there's more about them.
Zero emission maneuvers for example.
Last week I left my car in a public parking. As I was going to retrieve it, I saw that the car aside belonged to a woman that was just putting her little baby in his stroller.
Instinctively I kept myself from turning on the car, to prevent the baby from breathing exhausts from the car, when I realized that I was driving an hybrid.
I turned on the car and exited the parking in EV mode, without any emission.
Happy breathing baby!

2013-01-15

The gamification of the driving experience


Driving an hybrid car is a different experience from driving a traditional car.
Silence and smoothness are the prevailing sensations.

An hybrid car is a complex system that provides statistics while driving, like instant and average mileage, battery status, traction type (electric/gasoline/mixed).
All that information seems to foster the driver to improve himself.
Driving an hybrid car may turn into a satisfactory experience, even if by different standards from a traditional car.
Should the automotive industry bet on gamification of the driving experience, providing even more feedback to the driver?
The gamification is already in place in sites like spritmonitor: dashboard integration is the next logical step.
Will driving pleasure be measured by these new factors rather than old parameters like acceleration and horsepower?

Do they still matter when 80% of your driving is in slow moving traffic?

2013-01-03

Gruppo Acquisto Ibrido

These guys put up a purchasing group for hybrid cars.
They bought 16 Yaris Hybrid, obtaining a good discount on street price and several other benefits.
http://www.gruppoacquistoibrido.it/