John D. Fox, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/Applied Physics; William Dally, computer science; Jonathan Levav, Graduate School of Business

The environmental and economic value of hybrid vehicles is maximized by using the least amount of fossil fuel and exhausting battery power before recharging. Most hybrid cars use simple protocols for managing the battery. This project will develop techniques to predict the most probable trip a car is taking while the vehicle is in motion based on the driver, time of day, starting point, and other parameters. Such predictive ability combined with mapping of charging stations and real-time traffic data could direct the hybrid motor to use its electric charge optimally.