“What‟s an extra ten minutes‟ journey time when you can save three litres of fuel? The Green Driving Assistant allows you to select your route based on these options before you set out.”

The above quote comes from BMW and it describes in a few words their future Green Driving Assistant feature. With the automotive industry thinking primarily green these days, it comes as no surprise that BMW’s research and development departments are looking at further increasing the efficiency of their cars through different innovative technologies. Green Driving Assistant is embedded into the navigation system and its algorithm serve as an indication to the most fuel efficient navigation route.

The artificial intelligence built into the feature, allows the Green Driving Assistant algorithm to continuously learn the typical fuel consumption and the values can be used each time the driver is planning a new route. Future enhancements to the iDrive navigation system are likely to take advantage of this feature, but BMW has yet to commit to a specific timeframe.

To learn more about the Green Driving Assistant, read the description below, courtesy of BMW.

P90064036Among the selection criteria that the current generation of navigation systems gives drivers to help them choose a route is the expected journey time of each option and the distance to the destination. With the Green Driving Assistant, the BMW Group offers drivers a tool that also tells them their fuel consumption over each route and helps them to select one which would burn less fuel.

Quick, short or ECO – route planning with the Green Driving Assistant.

When planning their route ahead of a journey, drivers can compare suggested routes to determine which offers the shortest travelling time or the lowest fuel consumption. To help them decide, the Green Driving Assistant adds expected fuel savings to the familiar criteria of time of arrival and distance making it easy to decide whether a possible saving of fuel makes a slightly longer journey time worthwhile.

“The Green Driving Assistant gives me an objective way of selecting which route I follow and whether I wish to make use of the potential for saving fuel. In this way I can make a conscious decision to take quarter of an hour longer on the “green” route, for example, but save one litre of fuel in the process.” Johannes von Grundherr, Project Manager Green Driving Assistant.

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Tailored to the situation and versatile – journeys with the Green Driving Assistant.

The Green Driving Assistant offers options while driving to ensure that drivers reach their destination even more efficiently and comfortably. The technology informs the driver straightaway if it registers that the vehicle has insufficient fuel in the tank to reach the desired destination with the current driving style and route. The system shows whether, by activating the ECO mode (see Chapter 3.2) or choosing another route, the consumption could be optimized in order to reach the destination without stopping to top up – and enduring the delay that this involves.

If the driver wants to continue with the same driving style, the Filling Station Assistant subfunction of the Green Driving Assistant allows the timing of a refuelling stop to be planned carefully into the route. When choosing which fuel station to stop at, the system takes into account whether the driver prefers a particular fuel company – because he holds a customer loyalty card, for example – or fuel, and how great a detour would be involved. Once the driver has decided on his preferred filling station, it is entered into the navigation system as an intermediate stop and the route calculation is adapted accordingly.

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The Green Driving Assistant never stops learning.

A journey or driving profile learned by the navigation system serves as the basis for its calculation of the distance, arrival time and potential fuel savings involved. Here, the BMW Group engineers have developed an algorithm which learns the typical fuel consumption. A learning phase of approx. 500 km is all that is required to produce an adapted, vehicle- and driver-specific value which can be used by the Green Driving Assistant each time the driver is planning a new route.