Nissan Develops ECO Pedal to Improve Fuel Efficiency

Aug 5, 2008
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Nissan's Japan HQ has developed an accelerator pedal which can detect excess, unnecessary pressure, and push back on the driver's foot to increase fuel efficiency.  The driver will be able to choose whether to have this featured switched on or off.

Research at Nissan showed that the ECO pedal system, which also displays real-time fuel consumption information in the dash, could show an improvement to the vehicle's fuel efficiency by up to 5 to 10 percent.

nissan-eco-pedal_2

The ECO pedal stands as one part of Nissan's plan to reduce its cars' carbon dioxide emissions, which also includes improvement to vehicle technologies, educating drivers, and improving traffic conditions.

In 2007, Nissan announced a plan to install the a fuel consumption indicator in the dash of all its new cars, which indicates the optimal speed and style for fuel efficiency by displaying a green, flashing, or amber light.

While it plans to install the ECO pedal in its cars from next year, Nissan hasn't specified which models will receive the feature.

Comments

  • Alan Li [reply]
    2 years ago 0 points
    At least it can be switched off, apparently.

    The 3.5L V6 engine powering a raft of Nissan cars has a throttle-by-wire system, and at higher RPM it actually closes the throttle butterfly even if the driver keeps his foot pinned. There's no way around it other than hacking the engine management programming.
  • sticks [reply]
    2 years ago 0 points
    what if you need to get out of the way in a hurry, like if you're about to be T bone by a Truck, or being nag by your wife .....
  • Alan Li [reply]
    2 years ago 0 points
    All modern Nissans have passenger-side airbags, so crashing your car into a telegraph pole because your wife is nagging means she's as likely to survive as you are. ^_^

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