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GENEVA–By next year, some drivers in Europe will be able to track their driving habits and exhaust emissions, download the information to their computer and get lessons on greener, more efficient driving.
Fiat's EcoDrive, introduced at the Geneva International Motor Show this week, is built on top of the Blue&Me technology developed with Microsoft Corp. and launched two years ago to wirelessly connect mobile phones, iPods or MP3 players to a range of Fiat autos.
"This is the first time a standard car meets a computer," Fiat Automobiles SpA CEO Lorenzo Sistino told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "It's the first step of a new era. It has been two different worlds. Only in Formula 1 race cars do the computer and the car talk to each other. Now, on a standard car, the car and computer are in touch.''
Fiat's Blue&Me voice-activated entertainment application, which runs about $380 (U.S.), is available on recent models such as the Grande Punto and the remake of the classic 500. Last year the company introduced Blue&Me Nav, a system that costs about $668 and uses satellite-navigation capabilities to report accidents triggering air bags to emergency services while a concierge service calls the driver. If the driver does not respond, emergency services are dispatched, as with General Motors' OnStar system in the U.S.
In the United States, Ford Motor Co. launched Ford Sync, its version of a voice-activated in-car communications and entertainment system for mobile media powered by Microsoft Auto software, last September. Like Blue&Me, it lets drivers use voice activation to wirelessly connect their mobile phones and media players to the car system.
Ford also has said it will build on Ford Sync to provide an emergency service and an automotive diagnostic system in North America that keeps track of when a car needs an oil change or a tuneup, said Martin Thall, the general manager of Microsoft's automotive business unit.
"In North America the applications are more toward safety and security, while in Europe they are looking at emissions and navigation," Thall said. Fiat doesn't sell its cars in the United States.
As part of Fiat's Blue&Me package drivers also can choose to communicate their driving habits directly to the insurance company over a chip the automaker can activate.
While having a chip record one's driving habits might give pause, Fiat notes that the services are chosen by the buyer and are not automatic. The insurance program, for example, can be useful to a city-dweller who seldom drives but is charged urban rates. The system would allow the insurance company, which is Prudential in the case of the Fiat program, to verify actual mileage and set insurance rates accordingly.
Fiat's next step on the technological highway is EcoDrive, which will be launched with the 2009 Grande Punto onwards with upgrades free on all models integrated with Blue&Me.
EcoDrive will track data from a trip that is recorded by the car and can be downloaded directly onto a USB key. The information then is uploaded onto a personal computer and analyzed by a Fiat program, which will tell the driver his emissions level on the trip and make recommendations for improving efficiency. For example, a driver might be given braking or uphill driving tips, or reminded to maintain a constant speed on the highway or to drive in the highest gear possible.
"Driver behavior can have a dramatic effect on emissions, reducing them up to 20 percent in urban areas," Sistino said.
Future applications of the technology will include two-way communications to and from a vehicle, allowing a server with information from, say, a transportation department, to inform the car about a traffic jam up the road and provide an alternative route over the navigation system, Thall said.
Another way of tracking traffic backups could be by monitoring mobile phones, and if a lot of cell phones are stationary at one spot that could well indicate a snarl, he said.
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