Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Petrol-o-metre

 
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Do you ever wonder how much it costs you to get to work? How much the taxi driver is ripping you off? Or what the actual price of giving someone a lift is?

To just use the litres per km is not accurate due to traffic, the early morning surf, macdonalds ect.

Why not have a fuel usage calculator in your GPS, where you punch in the name of the car you are driving and your driving style. It will download the information on fuel usage for different speeds to give you an accurate approximation on the cost of your journey, provided that your car's engine is in good shape.

When you glance up at the GPS, you will also see a picture of coal with the equivalent amount of energy stored that you used, how many lights could be switched on with this energy and how much pollution this will produce-- all very depressing, thus encouraging the owner to do more things on one trip or drive more energy efficient cars.

This does not seem to be baked, though I do recall hearing about something like it with Nissan's Pivo 2.

danman, Jul 12 2009

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       why not have a "trip fuel usage meter" like a trip odometer but not; sensor on the fuel pump, RTZ meter on the dashboard.   

       [-]
FlyingToaster, Jul 12 2009
  

       //litres per gallon is not accurate due to traffic// really.   

       I'm going to unconvert from metric as soon as the exchange rate looks good.
lurch, Jul 12 2009
  

       yeah, srsly boo metric "oh most of us have 8 fingers and 2 thumbs, let's make every stupid thing, most of which have no relation, base10" wtf.   

       <rant>
[insert (probably not) forthcoming dissertation on "Arithmetic Principles Fallacies and the Human Condition"]
</rant>
FlyingToaster, Jul 12 2009
  

       VolksWagen cars have for a long time had an MFD or Multi Function Display. This is a sophisticated digital odometer which also integrates speed and fuel consumtion and implements both instantaneous, trip, and running average modes. It doesn't need GPS.   

       With a few software patches and a way of entering fuel cost, it could display a "price per trip" fairly accurately; even with the basig functionality, a few seconds with a pocket calculator will give you the numbers you desire.   

       The "pile of coal" and "lightbulb" analogies are just pretty-pretty front end graphics to appeal to the mouth-breathing morons of The iPod Generation, yet another pointless programming task from te idiots in Marketing ("Designed by Morons, for Morons").   

       We submit that this idea is Baked.
8th of 7, Jul 12 2009
  

       FT, agreed that that a "trip fuel usage meter" would be a very simple solution, but the idea is more focused on being able to review and anticipate the expense. I would like to look ahead as well as behind.   

       It isn't difficult mathematics to work it out, but many people would like to just key in their journey and see how much it will cost them.   

       This would be a nice extra feature that we could have on a GPS.   

       //The "pile of coal" and "lightbulb" analogies are just pretty-pretty front end graphics// Fair enough, it may be cosmetic, but it would really be great to be able to get an idea of the amount energy we are using on one of our many trips.
danman, Jul 12 2009
  

       You consume fossil fuel in vehicles? How barbaric ...
Aristotle, Jul 12 2009
  

       Sure, you don't need a GPS, but for this idea to work, you do need a map. It would be better to just add this software to a GPS device than go about setting up maps in fixed MFD's.
danman, Jul 12 2009
  

       Idea was inspired by the title ''AutoComplete Calculator Function''.
danman, Jul 12 2009
  

       until GPS's do altitude to within a metre, and traffic lights and conditions, using one is pointless except to find how many miles it is, which is pretty MapQuest'y baked.
FlyingToaster, Jul 12 2009
  

       FT, It can make accurate predictions, acc to distance and driving style. Sure gradient is a problem, but you will often face the same hills twice.
danman, Jul 12 2009
  
      
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