Along with geognerd’s insights in the comments of yesterday’s post, I’ve found some interesting things on the Prius dashboard.

First, a Prius enthusiast named John put together a breakdown of the different states of the “Energy Monitor” screen, with side-by-side comparison of the latest design with an earlier one. The Energy Monitor displays how the energy systems in the Prius are using and generating energy. This screen toggles with the “Consumption” screen I showed earlier.

Next, a picture-in-picture video showing a three-minute ride in a Prius. It shows the driver’s feet using the pedals alongside the dashboard display in real-time. It shows both the Consumption screen and the Energy Monitor. It’s especially cool to see this kind of coupling of the display with the user’s behavior. You can see pretty clearly how MPG responds to braking and accelerating.

Last, a video that shows how people are using the Prius dashboard to achieve efficiencies far exceeding the estimates for a Prius, with a technique called “hypermiling.” Feedback from the Energy Monitor is used to achieve a coasting glide that uses very little energy. I love this video because it’s a good example of how an interface can make saving energy fun and even competitive.