Subliminal vibro-tactile based notification of CO ₂ economy while driving

Abstract

A general reduction of carbon dioxide emissions is an important topic currently discussed by both society and government -- lower allowed emission values would strongly affect automotive manufacturers as road transport produces, for example, about one fifth of the CO2 emissions in the European Union. But that's not all, also the individual driver could be affected from regulatory mechanisms as it is feasible, not least due to the broad availability of wireless and information technology in cars, to demand the assembly of a "personal carbon dioxide profile" including all the emissions accumulating from operating vehicles, traveling by plane, and even from using public transport, and in succession to charge a person based on its effective CO2 consumption. One problem arising in this field is that an individual usually is not aware about his/her CO2 consumption, neither about which means of transportation produces what amount of carbon dioxide (what is the personal fraction of CO2 for a large plane with 250 passengers traveling 5, 000km?), nor how exactly to drive a vehicle economic or wasting with respect to CO2 emission or what the difference between these two extreme values (in terms of cost) is. To counteract the issue of driving economy, which is the only the driver can directly control, we propose a inattentive operating vibro-tactile notification system integrated into the car (safety belt or seating), helping the driver in his/her (i) subjective CO2 valuation and (ii) reduction of CO2 emissions while driving.