Sam Wollaston over at The Guardian test drove a Honda Insight and what was the verdict? "It is like a little environmental videogame."
The Honda Insight is a hybrid car with rather impressive green credentials to boast about. Turning the ignition on will light up a little green plant icon on the dashboard signalling that the driver is in Econ mode, meaning that a message is sent out to improve fuel economy. Also encouraging the driver to be more green is the speedometer which lights up green when the throttle is used lightly and "an angry purply-blue when not".
The video game aspect of the car is due to the multi-info display which shows a row of trees. Depending on how the car is being driven the trees will either shed leaves or grow more. The problem with this, Wollaston states, is that "it is more fun making the leaves drop off than it is to grow them" before making a suggestion based on the fact the most popular videogames are violent: "instead of trees on the display, they should have put a virtual Jeremy Clarkson there, on a rack. You have to drive greenly in order to tighten the rack until eventually, if you are really easy on the throttle, Clarkson's limbs are pulled from their sockets with a scream and a red splat, and then you can go to the next level, which involves taking out illegal Brazilian loggers with an eco-cannon."
To read more about the car, click here to visit The Guardian's article on it.
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