A team led by Southwest Research Institute has applied connectivity and automation to achieve a 20% improvement in efficiency on a 2017 Toyota Prius Prime. Working with collaborators at the University of Michigan and Toyota Motor North America, the team is sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) as part of its Next-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Automated On-Road Vehicles (NEXTCAR) program. ( Earlier post .) The program to develop enabling technologies set forth an ambitious target: To reduce the energy consumption of the Prius Prime by 20% without making changes to the powertrain and without compromising emissions, safety or drivability. We knew these tools had the potential for making a big impact on fuel efficiency. Vehicle connectivity and automation are already being used to effectively improve vehicle safety and driver convenience. For this program, we were able to tap into those existing data streams […]