Driving your Way – The Building of a Speed-influenced Navigation System

Abstract

Contemporary navigational systems have become better over the years, but have kept a focus on calculating optimal paths, i.e. the fastest, shortest, most fuel efficient, most touristic, etc. path. Little to no attention is given to offering users multiple options, where the final decision would depend on their own priorities. Doing so could raise awareness as to the argumentations behind such choices, which is a goal of the current research, focusing on how adhering to different maximum speeds could influence time and fuel consumption. The main question to be answered was: "To what extent does driving at different maximum speeds influence the time and fuel consumption for fastest car routes?" In order to answer this question, the following mission statement was set: “To create a website that allows for calculating and comparing the car routes for different custom maximum speeds.” Before building this website, a literature study into fuel consumption of cars was performed. By doing this, requirements for the website and the data to be used were determined, after which a blueprint for the system was drawn. After building the actual application, it was used to calculate 135.000 paths between 750 pairs of randomly selected departure and destination points within the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland, along with the time and fuel consumed for every path. Using a Monte Carlo analysis, these results were analysed statistically. It can be concluded that maximum speeds do indeed have a moderately strong influence on time consumption, and a weaker one on fuel. When comparing time and fuel over speed, it can be seen that time savings per litre extra use diminish over time. Varying car models in turn has a strong influence on fuel and none on time, whereas traffic situations only affect both consumptions slightly and dynamic speeds have no notable influence on either. Though by far the most important factor in determining time and fuel used is the location of the point of departure and the destination, maximum speeds’ influence is still large enough for it to be relevant for drivers wishing to make an informed choice on which route to take to wherever they need to get to. As such, the proposed model is deemed useful for this purpose.