The Pensieve

Honda recently offered a slash in their new Civic Hybrid model. Though not all are sure if it was a publicity move or an inventory clearing sale, I believe with good mileage figures and a growing concern on how green everyone should be, hybrid cars will see an increase in prominence in the Indian roads. The Indian market is price sensitive. Be it an industrialist who is buying a Rolls Royce or a car enthusiast pining for a BMW, the inevitable question remains: "What is the mileage?". This has led to a slew of Diesel cars in the market . Though economic to us, it still fails against the 'green' parameter. The other competitor to hybrids are the all-electric vehicles which may be termed greener (assuming that the cost of production, battery is far less harmful than the actual emissions), they lack in range, ability to quickly recharge (which seems to be a 5 minute affair for it's counterparts) and the lack of accessible recharge locations (do you think at the curren...

All at Tamil Nadu would have faced the spurts of acute fuel shortage and chances are, you too, like me had spent some time on the queue waiting to fill your tank. The last few days had been 'exciting' looking out for every fuel station on the way to see a line of already queued vehicles waiting for the fuel tanker to arrive. The recent fuel hike just added to the woes. We are accustomed to travel long distances, and imagine if for a week or two, the fuel tanker fails to arrive? A tank full of fuel may sustain you for a few days, but after that, you are left with your own foot (or other animals) for travel. Public transport (fuel driven) will not function and as traveling by foot would be difficult to span the distance that we once used to travel in mere minutes. Bicycles will be in great demand and possibly, we would start considering bullock-carts and horse riding. But, somehow, solar energy does not seem to be exploited by us, being in a very sunny place. Perhaps this free / ...

MaxMileage Been some time since I've posted. Had been busy reading the final volume of the Harry Potter series which I managed to acquire on the day of the release at the Central Railway station. Putting things aside, I had also managed to learn a little bit of DotNet programming and created a simple project @ SourceForge. With my interest in fuel economy, I had created a simple application to keep track of your progress and view the data as charts. It's not a complete application yet! I know a few hundred similar apps exists, but this I felt was more apt for my needs and I get a chance to program too.

Hypermilers... One of my earlier post glanced upon the techniques to achieve better fuel economy while driving. And I chanced to stumble upon an article that has expert advise and a group obsessed with saving fuel. Some of their techniques match mine, but most seems specific to highway driving and/or driving a hybrid. But with a little effort, these can be applied to city-driving too and you may be able to reap some benefits while driving through the traffic laden routes at Chennai! A point to note: Safety comes first, fuel economy next. In the mean time, I am trying to layout a traffic simulation application, where you can try out different kinds on signals (the regular contdown style, more intelligent ones that can sense the traffic buildup) and to find the right timing and location to ensure your car / bike keeps running. Will post the architecture / design of this system when it is done...