DouglasPonsford wrote:In terms of advanced driving, I can say from experience (I passed the IAM test some years ago) that advanced driving is more than just being observant, observing speed limits, making progress, showing courtesy to other road users and following the rules of the road. It's also about keeping our vehicles in good shape and generally trying to minimise our impact in the wider environment. Having a method to be able to measure those aspects of good driving and generally having a mechanism to be able to see if there's room for improvement is also a way to advance anyone's driving skills.
I'm wondering what aspects of advanced driving can be measured. In this answer you seem to be focusing on economy, but I'd be more interested if there was some way to measure the combination of smoothness and forces acting on the vehicle, and then to be able to identify those aspects that relate to patterns of advanced driving.
So, for example, people learning advanced driving through the IAM or RoADAR often have smoothness as a goal, but mistakenly think that smooth braking means long drawn out braking, rather than smooth transitions onto and off the brakes interspersed with firm braking. The latter is better as StressedDave explains more lucidly, because light braking over a long distance doesn't help with planning what to do at the hazard. It's also interesting how braking is tapered, because doing most of the braking away from the hazard leaves more time for assessment as you close up on the hazard.
Together these make the following pattern that might be identifiable: the smooth introduction of braking over a shortish period leading up to a longer period of sustained firmer braking, then smoothly tapering off with an extended tail before stopping or accelerating.
Another example would be smoothness in steering - a smooth transition from straight ahead increasing until enough steering deflection has been achieved, maintaining that deflection for as long as is necessary, then another smooth transition back to straight ahead. Good steering would be proactive instead of reactive; the latter might be detected by a slight unwinding of steering lock once the vehicle is turning as much as the driver originally desired.
Yet another example might be to detect and record smooth yet firm acceleration up to a speed limit - missing out needless gear changes and block changing once the upper speed has been achieved. Given that the speed limit is often the limiting factor on how fast we drive, it ought to be possible to record how well we maintain the speed limit once it has been reached, versus whether we allow the speed to drift up and down, and by how much, IYSWIM.