U of M Receives Federal Grant to Study Connected Vehicles and Energy Efficiency

The University of Michigan and a pair of national laboratories are joining forces to find out if connected vehicles can be more energy efficient than cars that aren’t talking to each other.

Huei Peng, a mechanical engineering professor at the U of M, says the technology allows cars to communicate with one another and with traffic lights.

He says studies have shown connecting cars on a network like you’d connect computers in an office makes for safer roads. But the idea of energy efficiency is uncharted territory.

Peng says all it takes is being stuck at a red light when there are no cars coming from the other direction to make a fuel efficient car less fuel efficient.

A federal grant will fund the study.

The university will be equipping 500 people’s cars – mostly hybrid-electric and battery electric vehicles — with instruments to track how much energy they use.