An Alternative to Alternative Fuels and Vehicles

markmcb writes "While the world is working to solve energy and environmental issues with today's petroleum fuels, some vehicles simply don't have good alternatives, namely off-road platforms. For those not willing to give up their gas-guzzling habits, Matt Vea offers an innovative alternative. Using the OBDII interface in his Jeep, a laptop, and the infinite power of Excel, Matt conducts some performance tests and uses the results to tweak both his vehicle's engine and his personal driving habits for optimal fuel consumption both on and off road." Rigorous testing and good use of available technology; nice work.

Comments

Hey look.. ! a flamer mod!

[plasmacutter]

I have to comment on the recent redshift in the mods lately.

I've seen numerous libertarian and left winged comments modded down as flamebait, offtopic, or overrated despite being insightful or otherwise interesting, presumably because the mods "didnt agree with it".

I posit that slashdot's metamod system is broken, since it allows partisan mods to anonymously troll comment sections at their leisure.

A note to these people: you dont like what's being said? well find someone who is refuting that point and mod it up, modding other people down because you dont like what they say smacks of fascism.

Re:Hey look.. ! a flamer mod!

[URSpider]

I posit that slashdot's metamod system is broken, since it allows partisan mods to anonymously troll comment sections at their leisure.

At the risk of being modded off-topic, this doesn't mean that the moderation system is broken. It WAS broken at one point, and that is why meta-moderation was introduced. If a moderator is doing what you suggest, then it should be obvious in meta-moderation, and that person will become less and less likely to get mod privileges in the future.

Post good stuff, moderate intelligently, and meta-moderate intelligently and often!

Re:Hey look.. ! a flamer mod!

[plasmacutter]

this only works under the assumption that metamoderators are any less partisan than their moderator counterparts.

granted I can't think of a better system at the moment.. but it's clear the current system is broken from behavior i've noticed.

Re:Why an 'old' station wagon?

[AGMW]

Does better than 22 MPG!

Wow. Better than 22MPG eh! I have two sports cars (a 2 seater and a 4 seater - both convertable as I really like the extra headroom it affords) and neither does under 40MPG even when I cruise at 90MPH+.

If you think 22MPG is good there's something wrong! 22MPG is an insult to the poor trees that died to make the petrol!

And I'd much rather be in a small nimble car paying attention and be given the option to avoid an impact than drive around in some thinly veiled armoured half-track on the off chance that some bozo is going to make a beeline for me when I'm half asleep.