Patent US5017916 - Shift prompter/driver information display

United States Patent m

Londt et al.

[li] Patent Number: 5,017,916 [45] Date of Patent: May 21, 1991

4,723,215 2/1988 Hibino et al 364/424.1

4,800,360 1/1989 Dunkley et al 340/456

Primary Examiner—Donald J. Yusko

Assistant Examiner—Yuk H. Lau

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Dennis K. Sullivan

[57] ABSTRACT

A shift prompter/driver information display for a highway truck is disclosed. The display is operable to cruising, prompting, and shifting modes of operation. In the cruising mode of operation the driver of the vehicle can select, via a set of keypad switches, information about the vehicle's operation that he desires to see presented on a multi-digit decimal readout of the display. Information concerning fuel economy, engine speed, vehicle speed, travel time, travel distance and engine hours can be selected. In the prompting mode of operation the display indicates that operation of the transmission to a different gear is appropriate. The shifting mode commences when the driver initiates a shift to a different gear. In the shifting mode the target gear to which the transmission should be shifted is presented on the display. Additional displays are included to aid the driver in completing the shifting procedure and these involve indicating when the engine speed is substantially equal to the synchronous meshing speed of the target gear. One of these is a linear analogue display that is associated with the digital display and is operational in both the cruising mode and in the shifting node; in the shifting mode it indicates approach of engine speed to synchronous meshing speed, and in the cruising mode it indicates actual fuel economy relative to a desired fuel economy goal.