Driving Scores

our new, unsmashed Prius

Because of our accident a couple of weeks ago, we had to buy a new car, and so, once again, we bought a Prius--our third (2007, 2012, 2018--and, no, I don't drink lattes or wear tasseled loafers). This one is so high-tech it's a little scary. Beeps when we drift out of a lane, get too close to something (even a drive-thru window).

And--worst of all--we get a score when we arrive wherever we're going. A grade. X/100. At first it was kind of amusing; now--occasionally--Joyce and I find ourselves in kind of a competition. "I got an 83," she'll say; I'll lie, say I got an 84 earlier in the day. Actually, I've ranged from 73-90.

The machine praises and prods us: "Good setting for heater." "Accelerate more moderately." That sort of thing.

We've had the car for a couple of weeks, and I for the life of me can't accurately predict what the score will be when we I pull into our driveway and turn off the car. I feel as if I've pretty much driven as always (I don't speed--four mpg over the posted limit; I try to avoid dumb, impatient moves, etc.), but the Prius doesn't agree with me, not always. It's like having a teacher whose grading standards vary, assignment to assignment. Student to student. Frustrating.

The mileage, by the way, is amazing. When we drive back and forth to Aurora (to Starbucks or McD's), a distance of, oh, 18 miles round trip (says Google Maps), we often get up to 70 mpg. I'll take it.

Here's what I'd find more useful: a scoring system that would permit me to advertise on the side of our car, in real time--in large, bright, legible letters--how other drivers are doing. Score and commentary.

On our Aurora trip last evening, for example, I would have loved to have been able to post things like this:

• Why didn't you signal?
• Why didn't you come to a full stop?
• Why are you tailgating?
• Can't you read the posted speed limit?
• Why didn't you signal?
• Why didn't you signal?
• Why are you texting?
• Why didn't you signal?
• You know it wasn't your turn at the four-way stop?
• Why didn't you signal?

And I'd prefer the old A-F grading system. And for last night? Lots of below-average scores. Perhaps, for some of those folks, it's time for detention? A note to Mom? A meeting with the counselor?