Technology
By depressing the green ECON button on the 2010 Honda Insight’s dashboard, the driver activates the automaker’s new Ecological Drive Assist System (Eco Assist). This new fuel-saving, driver-activated technology optimizes the continuously variable transmission, the gasoline-burning engine, the electric-assist components, and power-sapping features like the air conditioning to improve fuel economy. When driven in ECON mode, the Insight’s idle-stop feature also engages sooner and the regenerative brakes recharge the battery pack faster.
Eco Assist helps the driver learn to maximize MPGs with a real-time feedback function tied to the speedometer background color as well as through an economy scoring function. With the real-time speedometer feature, the background color changes from blue to green the more efficiently the Insight is driven. The economy scoring function charts cumulative, long-term fuel efficiency compared to individual trip fuel efficiency with graphic depictions of leaves that grow over time. In either case, the greener the display the more efficient is the Insight’s driver.
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