• Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    You’re locking in on the wrong thing.

    Every car made in the last 10 years can use auto-start and stop without any additional hardware. It’s practically free, just a little bit of code to shut off spark and fuel under certain conditions. I’m also fairly sure the commentor just googled “how long does the average person spend waiting at stoplights every day” and used that as an estimate for the fuel savings (practically free fuel savings I might add again). Auto-Stop works at the drive-thru, it works in carwashes, it works while waiting to pick up your kids at school, it works when you run into the house to grab something you forgot. I drove a 2015 Honda CR-Z with Auto-Stop for 9 years, and when the feature wasn’t working (it disables when it is very cold out) it dropped my fuel economy about 3-5mpg, and that was for a fairly small (1.5L) motor. The savings are much greater for larger, more fuel hungry engines.

    Again though, the feature does not require a new component, or special fuel, or interaction from the driver. We’re buying, burning, and wasting that extra fuel for no reason at all. No matter how small an amount it is, it’s worthwhile to save it when it costs us literally nothing to do so.