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NEWS
Nissan's Beijing connected car trials deliver results
An experiment in gridlocked Beijing promises to cut travel time, fuel use, emissions – and frustrationReal-world testing of Nissan’s Dynamic Route Guidance (DRGS) traffic information system has yielded dramatic results in fuel consumption and emissions reduction.
Nissan started the trials in Beijing, one of the world’s most gridlocked cities, in January 2012 with help from the city’s Municipal Commission of Transport. It’s the first such large-scale, real-world experiment using the technology.
According to the company’s statement, a simulation based on the project results showed that if just 10 per cent of all traffic in Beijing used the system, the resulting reductions in congestion would cut their travel times, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 10 per cent each.
The project has seen 12,000 cars fitted with DRGS-ready telematics systems that “talk” to a traffic information centre. The centre’s servers gather and process data and dispatch details back to each vehicle in real time; the fastest route to a preset destination shows up on each car’s navigation screen.
Diverting drivers from congested areas helps reduce congestion and speed up travel times for users and non-users alike by evening up the dispersion of traffic flow.
To help make the most of the technology, each car is also fitted with Nissan’s Eco-Drive Management System (EMS), the company’s driver advisory package aimed at teaching users how to maximise their fuel economy on each journey.
A year of testing saw the DRGS help cut average travel time by 5.1 per cent while boosting fuel economy by 7.6 per cent.
It attributed further improvements of around 6.8 per cent in fuel consumption to EMS.
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Written byJeremy Bass
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