Performance of current eco-routing methods

Abstract

Eco-routing is a vehicle navigation method that aims to minimize fuel or energy consumption for a given trip. It is based on a hypothesis that we can trade extra travel time for lower consumption. While the hypothesis was experimentally verified the design of a method that would fully exploit its potential proves challenging. Current solutions hinge on assumption that energy spent on any given road does not change in time. We challenge validity of this assumption by studying performance of such methods in detailed second-by-second simulation that pronounces the time-dependencies. This allows us to quantify the real savings attainable with current eco-routing.