How do you figure out if one vehicle is greener than another? Telematics

You may or may not have heard about the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE, which is a competition designed to highlight the possibilities of alternative fuels and ultra-efficient vehicles. The prize is $10 million, no small potatoes. The challenge isn't small either: The competitors are being asked to engineer production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 miles per gallon or its energy equivalent fuel efficiency.

On-track testing of the entries is scheduled for April 2010. Telematics technology will be core to collecting information that will be shared both with the public AND with K-12 students as part of a related education program funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. That's because you can't exactly hook one of these vehicles into a land-line network to collect the data; it needs to be collected via wireless sensors that are both accurate and rugged.

The technology being used in the on-track testing is from Morey, which provides something called a Data Acquisition System. These systems will keep tabs on accelerator position, speed, fuel economy and battery power; the data will be served up to the FuelOurFutureNow Web site. The site will let students and others track the vehicles in near real time.

The winners of the competition will be disclosed in September 2010.