Southwest Research Institute developed Eco-Mobility with Connected Powertrains with Toyota Motor North America and the University of Michigan to achieve over 20% energy savings and reduced carbon emissions in connected and automated vehicles. This technology features algorithms, software and testing tools for route, speed profile and power flows to lower fuel consumption by leveraging vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure and other vehicle-to-everything technologies.

Current automotive technology has limited capacity to lower fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, or they tend to require major changes to the powertrain. SwRI’s Eco-Mobility with Connected Powertrains provides breakthroughs by both improving fuel efficiency and improving the methodology for testing and validating technology using real-world drive cycles. SwRI provides a breakthrough in fuel efficiency by leveraging software, connectivity and power management systems on current production vehicles. This does not require changes to the powertrain of either electric/hybrid vehicles or internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. As the automotive industry moves toward more connected and automated vehicles and electrification, this breakthrough will help address needed improvements in fuel efficiency and reductions in emissions.