A group of researchers at MIT and Princeton University are using the iPhone to save fuel when stopping and re-starting cars at traffic lights. The system called SignalGuru involves mounting the iPhone on the car’s dashboard, and relying on the built-in camera and GPS to tell the driver when it’s best to slow the car down in order to save fuel.
Apparently this scheme proven to be working in Cambridge, MA where researchers reported cutting down the fuel consumption by 20 percent. However in places like Singapore where traffic lights change the length they’re displayed based on the traffic around them it didn’t work as planned — it was off by up to 2 seconds. In that sense, I guess further fine tuning is needed to make SignalGuru a global product.
In the meantime, we’re hoping to see this kind of system released to the general public to cut fuel consumption and CO2 emissions…
[Via: TUAW]