2010 Chicago Auto Show to Debut New Vehicle Efficiency Award

The inaugural Hermance Vehicle Efficiency Award, which recognizes the most efficient and appealing new car, will be given at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show. The award is given in honor of the late Toyota executive engineer David Hermance and will be presented on February 10 to the vehicle that represents Hermance’s vision of practical efficient design, as well as affordability for consumers and profitability for car companies.

"Our hope is that this award will become something like the Nobel Prize for the auto industry,” said Bradley Berman, the founder of media company BermanWorks, who stays behind the awards.

Dave helped create Toyota's vision for hybrid-electric vehicles, explained the benefits of efficient vehicle technologies to the public and media, describing how they worked in a way that could easily be understood by all audiences. Prior to joining Toyota in 1991, Dave was the department head for durability test development at General Motors for 15 years.

He died on November 25, 2006, aged 59, when the experimental airplane he was piloting crashed into the Pacific Ocean. After his death, the Los Angeles Times called Dave "an engineering wizard with an environmentalist's heart—an executive who championed hybrid gasoline-electric cars years before global warming entered the popular conversation."

This year, the Chicago Auto Show will also premiere a web-based, 3D interactive tour of the event, allowing online users to navigate and explore the auto show floor and visit individual exhibits.

The virtual experience uses NeuStep’s patent-pending WebWalk technology, which enhances user experience by integrating clickable icons or “hotspots” to provide further product information through video, audio, high resolution images, links and other embedded media.