A York company's new hybrid bus transmission reduces emissions from city buses, which is good news for the transportation authorities that buy its vehicles. These transmissions call for a modified way of driving, but a partnership between two companies in south-central PA means drivers don't have to get behind the wheel of a new bus to learn how it works.
Voith Turbo, which makes the bus transmissions, has teamed up with JPL, a Harrisburg marketing company, to create a driving simulation program for tablets on the Android platform. Lars Johnson, technical trainer at Voith, explains that for buses with its new transmissions to conserve energy, drivers can't press down all the way on the brake when they come to a stop. The simulation game communicates this in a simple way: Tip the tablet forward to speed up and tilt it backward to slow down. The more energy drivers conserve, the better their scores will be.
Voith plans to release the simulation around the end of January. Each company that buys a bus with the new transmission will also receive a tablet for driver training.
The game doesn't involve sitting in a real driver's seat, but Steve Hulse, JPL's manager of learning solutions, believes it will be an effective training tool because drivers won't have to learn many new skills to operate a bus with a new Voith transmission. “It's so new that we haven't seen it in the field yet,” he says. “I think that the idea of energy management will translate well.”
Sources: Steve Hulse, JPL; Lars Johnson, Voith Turbo
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen