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ORNL researchers use stop-light cameras to reduce fuel consumption of less-efficient vehicles via traffic management

Green Car Congress

Approximately 6 billion gallons of fuel are wasted in the US each year as vehicles wait at stop lights or sit in dense traffic with engines idling, according to US Department of Energy estimates. In a real GRIDSMART system, they just send vehicle data to a controller, and it says, ‘I’ve got cars waiting, so it’s time to change the light.’

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Google Adds Bike Directions in US to Google Maps

Green Car Congress

Google has added biking directions in the US to Google Maps. This has been the most requested addition to Google Maps, according to the company, which unveiled the new feature at the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC. As with driving directions, one can click-and-drag the route to customize it.

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Google focusing autonomous driving development on mastering city street driving; patents piling up

Green Car Congress

Over the past year, Google has shifted the focus of its autonomous vehicle project onto mastering city street driving, according to Chris Urmson, Director, Google Self-Driving Car Project. Google says that its autonomous vehicles have logged nearly 700,000 autonomous miles (1.13 —Chris Urmson. Title and description.

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Aclima partnering with Google to map outdoor air quality with Street View vehicles

Green Car Congress

a San Francisco-based company that designs and deploys environmental sensor networks, is partnering with Google Earth Outreach to map and better to understand urban air quality. Today we’re announcing the success of our integration test with Google, which lays the foundation for generating high resolution maps of air quality in cities.

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SwRI-led team achieves 20% improvement in vehicle fuel efficiency with connectivity, automation; ARPA-E NEXTCAR

Green Car Congress

For this program, we were able to tap into those existing data streams and put the information to use in a new way. The team achieved these benefits by developing the next generation in vehicle dynamic and powertrain (VD&PT) control software, designed to proactively use “look-ahead” information to anticipate vehicle power demand.

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Updated Audi Q7 SUV has 48V MHEV as standard, new PHEV option

Green Car Congress

The latter ranges from traffic information online, navigation with Google Earth, to the hybrid radio. The same applies to the Car-to-X service traffic light information, which is being rolled out in stages in selected European cities.

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Waymo suing Otto and Uber over autonomous driving technology

Green Car Congress

Waymo, formerly the Google self-driving car project, is suing Otto and its parent company Uber, charging that the two mis-appropriated Waymo trade secrets and infringed Waymo patents. Waymo further charged that other former Waymo employees, now at Uber and Otto, downloaded additional confidential information.