Vehicle: Car: Speedometer
Average Speed Indicator   (+2, -2)  [vote for, against]
So you can know your average speed during a long car trip without doing math

This dashboard device tells you your average speed, updated every x minutes. You can determine how the duration of your rest stops or meals affects your average speed. For some reason, I always want this information on a long trip.
-- snarfyguy, Nov 05 2001

You'd need a reset button, to indicate when the trip starts.
-- DrBob, Nov 05 2001


through London - 2 m.p.h., 4 m.p.h .,10 m.p.h ., 3 mp.h.,,stop ,2 m.p.h .,4 m.p.h., stop, 4 mp.h., 3 m.p.h., 5 m.p.h.,stop start stop start stop start stop start stop start stop start stop start stop start stop stop stop....
-- po, Nov 05 2001


DrBob: But of course.

po: The device should be disabled in heavy traffic, as it would only fuel motorists' rage...
-- snarfyguy, Nov 05 2001


snarfyguy - I fell feul of that one
-- po, Nov 05 2001


Baked. I had a Beemer, once (never again), that had an onboard computer which would display just about every piece of irrelevant information you could desire.
-- phoenix, Nov 05 2001


<pa>fuel</pa>
-- DrBob, Nov 05 2001


Spelling error noted & corrected, thanks [DB]
-- snarfyguy, Nov 05 2001


Baked without a Beemer; my old '88 Carlton (Opel Omega, Holden Commodore) also had an on-board computer which showed average speed, instantaneous fuel consumption, range, and a host of other stuff. At least, it would have done, had it been working.
-- angel, Nov 06 2001


What about a personal version? I usually budget 90 minutes of travel to & from work, on public transport, a distance of 26 km in two segments. It will have to exclude time spent waiting for the bus.
-- neelandan, Nov 06 2001


Many, many cars offer such fundamentally useless info, on equipment which makes just one more thing to have to pay to have fixed, when it inevitably breaks.

Buy an Audi. That's the way the money goes...
-- UnaBubba, Nov 06 2001


My car (VW Passat) does this, but it's useless.
-- hippo, Nov 06 2001


My dad has a Passat too. The fuel consumption part interests me.
I'd like the personal version. It strikes me that you could easily bake it, though, with a notepad to mark the times (the time you got out of your front door, stopped at the bus stop, got on the bus and arrived at work) and a map to measure the distances (only need to do this once, if you take the same route to work each day) and a calculation of the speeds on each segment. Or you could just measure the distance to work and note how long it takes to get there. How about a halfbakery users' comparison of distance, time and total cost of commuting per day?
And add it in to the Job Morality Indicator - no point in working for Greenpeace if you don't use public transport!
-- lewisgirl, Nov 06 2001



halfbakery