A small step to lessen fuel consumption

January 20 2010, 11:07pm

I spent the past week in Florida—on short notice, a client called me to come along with him to a conference in the Tampa/Clearwater area. For the rides between airport, hotel and the conference center we rented a mid-size SUV (a Jeep Patriot, to be precise). When the conference was over, we took a day off to visit Kennedy Space Center before flying home again—once we got there, we were surprised to see we almost ran out of fuel.

Then it occurred to me once again: All the different cars I drive on a regular basis are able to display their current fuel consumption on a display on the dashboard. But this data doesn’t just show up there every time you start the engine, to see it you actually have to shuffle through a menu of other items. I’d like to have the fuel consumption displayed on the dashboard by default—instead of information like the name of the playing radio station, which is redundant anyways. Since this would make the drivers amongst us more aware of their use of fuel, I think it could ultimately lead to more responsible driving and less fuel consumed.