Your Next Car May FORCE You To Save Gas!

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., last week unveiled the ECO Pedal, which they describe as “a world first technology designed to assist drivers to become more fuel-efficient.”   The official press release reveals how the system will work.

“When the eco-pedal system is on, each time the driver steps on the accelerator, a counter push-back control mechanism is activated if the system detects excess pressure, helping to inform the driver that they could be using more fuel than required.

Did you get that?  The car, if it thinks you’re accelerating too rapidly will actually PUSH BACK on the gas pedal.  Being a reformed long-distance commuter, I’ve witnessed the lead-foots and worse – incessantly darting, stopping, starting, recklessly weaving – well, you’ve probably seen it yourself on your way to Kroger.  But can a car compensate for human judgment?  Or should it?

Here’s Nissan’s vision as described in their words.  “In order to achieve reduction in CO2 emissions, Nissan takes a  triple-layer  solution that encompasses vehicle technologies, driving behavior and traffic conditions. The ECO Pedal supports the second-layer addressing driving behavior and is among a range of eco-friendly technologies being pursued under the Nissan Green Program 2010.”

Well, that’s comforting.  They’re doing it all in the name of their “green” initiative.

And that’s good news for the folks at Treehugger.com, who say “Feedback is very important. If you don’t know how you are doing, it’s very hard to improve. That’s why the big screen in the Toyota Prius helps you drive more efficiently, and that’s why we should make electricity meters easy to read and put them inside houses.  With the ECO Pedal, Nissan has come up with a new way to get fuel economy feedback while driving.”

“The way it works is simple. When the system is on, each time the driver steps on the accelerator, a counter push-back control mechanism is activated if the system detects excess pressure, helping to inform the driver that they could be using more fuel than required.   After a while of this Pavlovian regime, you can’t help but learn which behaviors the car “approves” of and which you should avoid.”

The ECO pedal has drawn negative commentary on the popular tech blog, Gizmodo.com.  One post reads “I’m all for exploring new technologies that help us save gas, but I think Nissan has gone a little too far with their “Eco Pedal.” Another said,  “As asinine and unsafe as all of this sounds, at least Nissan had the good sense to implement an on / off switch.”

I tend to agree with David Thomas of Cars.com who says “We have one major issue with this system: If you are in a risky situation and need to accelerate quickly to avoid it, you’re out of luck.

Nissan plans to commercialize the ECO Pedal during 2009. Research conducted by Nissan has shown that by using the ECO Pedal drive system, drivers can improve fuel efficiency by 5-10%*1, depending on driving conditions.

About the Author:
Ken Ivey is a veteran technology addict, consultant, author, web designer, and President of MidTN Technology, a marketing and web design firm.  For more information, call 615-278-9324 or visit www.kenivey.com

Company Offers Recording Solution for Online Olympics Video

San Anselmo, CA - August 7, 2008. When the Olympics start tomorrow it will be easy to watch all the coverage online at NBCOlympics.com. NBC and Microsoft have partnered to create a site that will stream not only all the coverage of the competitions, but will offer exclusive video of the athletes, their training and special events leading up to the individual competitions. All this video will be streamed using Microsoft’s Silverlight format. And while the video is readily available to watch, downloading the streaming video isn’t possible. No one has developed a software program that can stream capture the Silverlight format. WM Capture, by Applian Technologies and All Alex Inc, offers an alternative solution.WM Capture is a screen capture program that has been optimized for making high quality videos right from the PC’s screen. It uses a high speed MPEG-2 codec that can compress video fast, offering superior picture quality. Additionally, the program’s developer has created special audio capture technology also incorporated into the program. The resulting recordings are, according to the company, so superior that it is hard to distinguish these screen capture recordings from the original streamed video. There is no recorder available on the market that can capture all the Olympic coverage on NBCOlympics.com with better clarity than WM Capture, they say.

WM Capture is just $39.95, and will work on all modern Windows PC’s. To learn more, visit www.wmrecorder.com.

About All Alex Inc.

WM Capture was developed by Alex Urich of All Alex, Inc, which also developed WM Recorder and WM Converter. Alex Urich partnered with Applian Technologies in 2003, and they have been working together ever since. Alex Urich also has started Circuit Tree Medical and AHA Software Companies. He has been developing software for over 15 years.

About Applian Technologies, Inc.

Applian Technologies is recognized as the global leader in software products for recording streaming media. Other popular Applian products include Replay Media Catcher, Replay A/V, Replay Converter, and Replay Music. Learn more about Applian Technologies at Applian.com.