Method and system for utilizing the energy storage provided by a vehicle's mass in the form of potential and kinetic energy to optimize fuel consumption

A method for optimizing fuel consumption of one or more vehicles, executed by a computer, comprising:

• receiving a desired speed range and vehicle characteristics;
• receiving an elevation profile;
• determining location within the elevation profile using a localization mechanism;
• calculating one or more speed profiles by an optimization engine to optimize a fuel economy of the vehicle based on the vehicle and terrain characteristics;
• using a potential and kinetic energy transfer to adjust motor load and optimize fuel efficiency over the elevation profile;
• selecting the speed profile that maintains the vehicle within an assigned range of speed and minimizes fuel consumption;
• receiving multiple vehicle characteristics for two or more vehicles traveling in a convoy;
• receiving maximum and minimum convoy separation distances for each vehicle in the convoy;
• determining or receiving acceleration profiles for all the vehicles in the convoy;
• considering the fuel consumption of the complete convoy utilizing the energy storage provided by each vehicle's mass from the convoy in the form of potential energy as a battery to save energy;
• converting the potential energy provided by each vehicle's mass from the convoy into kinetic energy to optimize the fuel consumption calculation;
• calculating a range of cruise control speeds by the optimization engine to optimize the fuel economy of the convoy of vehicles based on the fuel consumption of the complete convoy and terrain characteristics;
• and
• optimizing a combination of vehicles in the convoy as a whole, providing better fuel savings than individual optimization on each of the two or more vehicles traveling in the convoy separately.