I'm involved in a programming contest on November 28 to see which team of software engineers can come up with the most useful computer application that takes advantage of the Ford OpenXC hardware-software research platform telemetry data. The teams will have this data coming to them in real time and being stored permanently:

Torque at Transmission, N/m2
VehicleSpeed, m/s
EngineSpeed, RPM
EngineTemperature, degC
Logitude,
Latitude
Odometer reading, km
Accelerator Pedal Position, %
Fuel Level, %
Fuel Consumed, L
Steering Wheel Angle, degrees
Ignition status
TransmissionGearPosition
WindshieldWiperStatus
HighBeamStatus
DoorStatus
ParkingBrakeStatus
BrakePedalStatus
Year
Model
Make
VIN

They are trying to come up with a killer application that does something useful with this data whether looking at a single car in real-time or looking at a thousand car fleet over the course of a year.

There's this rule for computer programming that somebody with passion for the subject can spot something in 5 minutes that the designers can't find in a year. So if you can think of some type of application based on either real-time or after-the-fact analysis of the telemetry readings listed above that would be useful, please reply.

My idea is to do a condition-based maintenance program to replace the "every 3 months or 3,000 miles" mileage/calendar based system for oil changes. But I work with computers. I don't know anything about engines. Are "miles driven" and "days since last change" really the best metric for measuring the breakdown of oil? Or would it be something else, like how many long trips versus short trips. How long you have drive at 110% percent of average engine temperature?