If you put a modern ICE car in neutral while moving, you’ll use as much gas as you would while sitting in a parking lot idling.
However if you just coast in gear with the engine braking slowing you down, a modern car will turn off the fuel to the engine, so zero gas is used.
Then you trade greater pumping losses (reducing kinetic energy of the car) in exchange for lesser potential energy (gasoline) usage. It's not a free lunch.
Yes, but driving a vehicle is not a steady state problem. When a driver lifts the throttle, the next action is typically an intentional demand for a loss of potential energy (i.e. the driver is moving their foot to the brake)
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