Evaluating eco-driving advice using GPS/CANBus data

Vehicles in the US use approximately 1.4 billion liters of fuel a day. This number can be reduced by driving more fuel efficiently. Several sources provide fuel saving eco-driving advice, but the advices are often quite abstract. This paper uses a large set of high-frequent GPS and Controller Area Network Bus (CANBus) data from four similar vehicles to evaluate the eco-driving advice. The CANBus data provides information such as the fuel consumption per second and rounds per minute of the engine. The vehicles are compared and evaluated on the drivers' ability to follow the eco-driving advice. This comparison shows that there is a 23% difference in the fuel efficiency. This difference is due to quite different speed and acceleration profiles of the drivers but also that stopping at a traffic light consumes double the fuel compared to not stopping. Overall it is shown that there is good potential for saving fuel by following the eco-driving advice. However, no single advice dominates, and multiple advices are found to have a positive effect on the fuel efficiency.