Fuelly

August 8, 2008 5:39 AM

Matt and PB's Fuelly on Lifehacker

Just wanted to offer a congrats on the new site. Looks pretty cool! I hope this is an appropriate place, if not, feel free to close.

Good job guys, site looks great!

posted by pearlybob to MetaFilter-Related at 5:39 AM (45 comments total)

Americacentric.
It would probably attract a much wider audience / membership if there were Litre + Imperial
Gallon conversion options as well as Kilometers - miles and vice versa. Otherwise Neat.
posted by adamvasco at 6:12 AM on August 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

a 4500lbs. honda ridgeline???

I fully expected him to drive a prius.
posted by krautland at 6:22 AM on August 8, 2008

Yeah, a conversion tool/widget/button thingie would be cool.
posted by chillmost at 6:33 AM on August 8, 2008

I love the icons of the site the most, I think.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 6:54 AM on August 8, 2008

Be interesting to see graphs once this has been around for a while. By car, by driving style, by geographic region, etc.
posted by DU at 7:05 AM on August 8, 2008

Fuelly?

Why not Gassy ?

Ahh.
posted by mattoxic at 7:07 AM on August 8, 2008

I don't even own a car. I really must get a hobby.
posted by tellurian at 7:27 AM on August 8, 2008

I'm having trouble adding my vehicle. Is there no space for anything that's more efficient than a Prius?
posted by Eideteker at 7:28 AM on August 8, 2008

(in case that wasn't clear, I think "add a car" should allow the user to add a vehicle to the database, not just to select a car from the database to add to their profile. As I imagine the number of unique models would be relatively low, it should be easy to moderate submissions.)
posted by Eideteker at 7:35 AM on August 8, 2008

Yeah, I was coming here to comment that I cannot add my motorcycle to my garage, since it isn’t available in the selections. I agree that it would be useful to be able to add new types of vehicles. Pretty cool site, though.
posted by breaks the guidelines? at 7:39 AM on August 8, 2008

Eideteker and breaks the guidelines?- pb says: "My guess is that motorcycle data will get a someday priority instead of a before we launch priority."
posted by tellurian at 7:45 AM on August 8, 2008

If Matt/PB are amenable, I'm sure the technically-minded among us would be interested to read a quick run-down on the software behind this new site (web app frameworks, persistence, language and platform).
posted by sdodd at 7:49 AM on August 8, 2008

I think the site would be very popular with motorcyclists, based on the folks I know. I, for one, keep a notebook with me on the bike where I record all my fuel-ups and the mileage. It's handy for figuring out when to do preventative maintenance, and also for keeping track of your diet. (Since, on a bike, the rider is a greater % of the vehicle's weight, it also has a more pronounced effect on fuel economy.)

Speaking of which, since it's a social networking site it should have been called FuelEconoMe or something cute like that. The fuel pump mascot is kinda cute, though.
posted by Eideteker at 7:49 AM on August 8, 2008

This is a cool idea. But I have to agree with the others about being able to add other vehicles.

Because I really want to be able to compare the Prius to some other hybrids out there.

You know, just to determine which is more practical for my daily commute.
posted by quin at 7:51 AM on August 8, 2008

Eideteker and breaks the guidelines?- pb says: "My guess is that motorcycle data will get a someday priority instead of a before we launch priority."

I would be willing to do [some of] that research. It's a cool site, and it would be very useful to me; but as it is, I don't own a car (nor do I really want one).
posted by Eideteker at 7:51 AM on August 8, 2008

This is a cool site. I've been keeping track of mileage/fuel data in the little notebook that came with the truck when I bought it from a grandpa out in the sticks. It's been fun continuing the pages and pages of his neat handwritten notes, but I'm looking forward to migrating to this site.

Fuelly has a forum—an odd mixture of MeFi and MeTa with a splash of BB confusion—in which every one of the feature requests here has been mentioned and addressed. The automobile Db they purchased didn't come with motorcycle information, so they've been shopping around for one and considering allowing user to input new vehicle makes/models.
posted by carsonb at 7:51 AM on August 8, 2008

Some script weirdness adding a car: I filled out all the info but the car name (there's a reason for my username), which prompted the "Please give us a name error". Fine. Correct and resubmit, but the form has forgotten my model year AND the drop box is grayed out so I cannot fill it in. Had to back up to a new form. Not a huge deal, but.

Also, fuelly isn't in the MeFi profile choices (yet).

Consumption vs mileage data: Can us Canucks have L/km too, please? Although, I did see a dealership advertising in km/gal the other day (Imperial or US, I wanted to ask). Hogsheads per furlong would also be appropriate, I think.
posted by bonehead at 7:55 AM on August 8, 2008

Hey, the iPhone icon sure looks familiar...
posted by Foci for Analysis at 8:00 AM on August 8, 2008

Eideteker and breaks the guidelines?- pb says: "My guess is that motorcycle data will get a someday priority instead of a before we launch priority."

I like how the url (title) is Motocycle. Kind of just strips the silly testosterone laced super manly ruggedness out of it somehow doesn't it? "I drive a moto cycle". Awww, you cute lil thing! Hello moto.
posted by cashman at 8:11 AM on August 8, 2008

FuelEconoMe

Not enough full stops.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:12 AM on August 8, 2008

Shouldn't this be in Projects now that commenting is enabled?
posted by blue_beetle at 8:25 AM on August 8, 2008

I couldn't register with an email address with a "." in the ante-@ part. It kept messaging to "enter an email address." It worked after I used a different email address.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 8:42 AM on August 8, 2008

And add moto-bikes because, please. I, too, only roll internal combustion on two wheels or less.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 8:42 AM on August 8, 2008

**Cries ** my Toyota has this feature built in so I can't play.
posted by Cranberry at 8:47 AM on August 8, 2008

Will there be any other games?
posted by Cranberry at 8:48 AM on August 8, 2008

I like the SMS update suggestion on the Lifehacker site. You'd use the trip odometer for this, not the overall odometer, right? Tracking & comparing the overall mileage on the car might be helpful too. (If I had a car, I'd post that on the forum.)

Is the name taken from the anime FLCL? Because that would be awesome.
posted by Pronoiac at 8:53 AM on August 8, 2008

Check out those Lifehacker comments. Christ, I thought this place was negative...
posted by Ian A.T. at 8:54 AM on August 8, 2008

YBB: I had no such problem.
posted by Eideteker at 9:15 AM on August 8, 2008

Eideteker, we'll be adding motorcycles next week!
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:33 AM on August 8, 2008

I love how this blogspam is somehow ok.
posted by Zambrano at 9:35 AM on August 8, 2008

Okay!
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:40 AM on August 8, 2008

I love how this blogspam is somehow ok.

Where spam = item chosen for reading by paid member of website? Huh.
posted by desuetude at 9:58 AM on August 8, 2008

Fuelly's failwhale. Heh.
posted by booticon at 10:32 AM on August 8, 2008

I fully expected him to drive a prius.

Tall people and a Prius do not mix in the least bit.
posted by Gucky at 11:11 AM on August 8, 2008

Where spam = item chosen for reading by paid member of website? Huh.

Well.. This should really be a front page post then. It doesn't really belong here.
(and, what does 'paid member' have to do with anything?)
posted by Chuckles at 3:39 PM on August 8, 2008

Fundamentally, a post noting the launch of a major new project from Matt (and pb, in this case), or the launch of a significant metafilter-related project, is itself pretty reasonable historical grounds for a metatalk post. It doesn't happen very often, and it's such a far cry from "blogspam" that that complaint is just deeply weird.

Fuelly would probably make a good FPP—and Fuelly + other vehicle/gas-tracking-related stuff that's been going on the last few years with some context maybe an even better one—but launch day probably wouldn't be the day to do it and given the strong mefi connection and that it's in metatalk already, it's probably a moot point.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:54 PM on August 8, 2008

People keep track of how much fuel they use? Hell, I don't even know how much a liter costs in the first place.
Different strokes, etc.
posted by signal at 8:21 PM on August 8, 2008

Well.. This should really be a front page post then. It doesn't really belong here.
(and, what does 'paid member' have to do with anything?)

Meaning that not only did this information not land, unbidden, in anyone's personal inbox or on our personal websites, but we must come to Metafilter, check Metatalk (an section auxiliary to the main purpose of the site), and select the item for reading based on the title "Matt and PB's Fuelly on Lifehacker." AND all of us posting here to weigh in on this controversy have paid five bucks expressly for the privilege to do so. So instead of being compared to spam-anything, it's opt-in-in-in-innnnn.
posted by desuetude at 9:51 PM on August 8, 2008

So you are arguing that nothing on MetaFilter can ever be spam, because you have to opt in in in innnn to see it? Or, you are arguing that mathowie can do whatever he wants, wherever he wants, whenever he wants? You did notice that mathowie didn't post this thread, right?

Cortex is right about the precedent, of course, but a lot of the time the work sited is at least peripherally MetaFilter related. Like fortuitous (spelling?), or talks presented at various conferences.

Hmm, I bet if this post started with "MetaFilter's own mathowie and pb" nobody would have complained :)
(for the record, I was never complaining, at all. Just observing that it makes more sense as a front page post)
posted by Chuckles at 10:19 PM on August 8, 2008

matt,etc.: could you publish the real average fuel consumption for each vehicle based on all the data generated? car testers often write about the fuel economy they got in a test as opposed to what the manufactor previously claimed but that's usually in regards to a brief test. to have a massive statistic detailing the most efficient car if you live in a hilly area like oregon or hot place like southern california and a page indicating what the avera 3series driver is getting out of their vehicle might make this project only bigger.
posted by krautland at 3:51 AM on August 9, 2008

This would be of real use to me if it allowed me to
* enter my '91 Daihatsu Mira and my '89 Nissan Pulsar
* enter fuel in litres, distance in km, and get consumption figures in litres per 100km
* enter fuel type per fill (e.g. RON 95 E10 vs RON 98 E10 vs RON 91 unleaded vs RON 96 unleaded)
posted by flabdablet at 6:13 AM on August 9, 2008

Having to strip the linebreaks from the confirmation code after pasting it into the box threw me for a minute or two as well.
posted by flabdablet at 6:21 AM on August 9, 2008

I can't believe that no one has done so:

My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I like it.
posted by fixedgear at 2:52 PM on August 9, 2008

What flabdablet said (except substitute a '98 Nissan Patrol and a '98 Holden Commodore). I would totally ditch my spreadsheet for this if it worked in the civilised world.
posted by dg at 1:57 PM on August 10, 2008

My motorcycle is here. I had problems with a recent compound fill-up, but that's a rare occurrence (had to pre-pay with exact cash, ended up needing to top off in order for my numbers to be accurate). Fuelly does not like it when you top off your tank. Fuelly will come to your house drunk and pantsless while you're trying to enjoy dinner with your family, and Fuelly will fuck you up. If you try to enter a < 1 gallon fuel stop. Otherwise, everything will be cool. But don't you cross that line, man. It's not worth it.

Now to go looking for the 20+ fuel receipts I think I threw out 1 week before I saw this announcement...

Matt, will get you some more free publicity from my biker skum pals. Will also solicit feedback (since most of them are programmers/computer nerds themselves). Thanks to you and Paul for complying with my demands in such a quick and orderly fashion.
posted by Eideteker at 3:01 PM on August 18, 2008