I’m not exactly Joe Treehugger. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think people should be wasteful, we should avoid polluting our beautiful planet and all of that, but I’m not going to be jump in people’s grills and scream about it.
But this here is pretty damn cool:
These are the “Efficiency Leaves” on the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybird, the Motor Trend 2010 Car of the Year. As you start up the car, the leaves are not present and the more fuel efficient your drive style is, the more the leaves sprout on the screen. If you start hammering the gas pedal like Lindsay Lohan doing shots of Ketel One, the leaves begin to disappear. Simple right?
A bit of video showing this all in action:
Sweet.
But what really got me thinking about how this bit of snazzy technology makes being green fun was a review of the car on MSNBC. The money quote:
Failure to drive in a way that cultivated this garden sparked howls of outrage from the back seat, where my kids complained I was killing the leaves as they disappeared. So while it would be easy to dismiss the efficiency display as a silly gimmick, it is a hard-to-ignore reminder that with just a bit lighter pressure on the pedal, the Fusion Hybrid can get spectacularly good mileage.
So while it can be a rather nice (and sort of fun) little visual indicator for the driver, just think of how anyone with kids could benefit from this given the anecdote above.
It also does my patriotic heart a world of good to see a very innovative and clever idea come from an American car manufacturer, especially since it is all wrapped up in an attractive package to boot. That’s the American dream – smarts in a sexy package… you know, kind of like me. ; ) BOO YAA!
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