An Extended Driving Simulator Used to Motivate Analysis of Automobile Fuel Economy

In a senior undergraduate/introductory graduate level interdisciplinary course in energy utilization at Thayer School, students experiment with "driving" a simulated car in different styles and measuring fuel economy.To enable this, we modified an open-source automobile racing computer game to include a realistic model of fuel consumption.After students compared fuel economy calculations to results from driving tests, we challenged them to perform additional analysis of fuel-saving driving strategies in preparation for a fuel economy competition, which culminated in an entertaining public tournament and demonstration.The goal of the exercise was to improve students' understanding of efficiency considerations in vehicle engineering, including seeing how these considerations apply in different situations on simulated roadways.The driving simulator, via three-dimensional graphics and a user interface with a steering wheel and pedals, provides students with a compelling immersive experience.The framework of striving for minimum fuel consumption (popularly termed "hypermiling") engages students' attention as they try to improve their own driving performance and compete with each other, and gives them an incentive to consider subtleties of vehicle power requirements, engine efficiency maps, and their interactions.Compared to experiments with real vehicles, the simulator ensures student (and bystander) safety, allows precise display of fuel consumption rate and total fuel consumption, allows more precisely repeatable experiments, enables easier interaction between student groups and between students and instructors, and allows experiments with driving styles that might not be acceptable on public roadways.The paper describes the technical development of the simulator, the class activities developed making use of it, and the educational impact of the project.