I know people have been thinking about this, because we at The Autopian were awoken by the incredibly loud klaxon and flashing, caged red light that goes off whenever we’re tagged on Twitter. People are discussing fuel gauge notation, and they want us involved, and this is not something I can say no to. I’ve tried to distill down the variety of fuel gauges into six main categories; I know there will be some outliers, which I’ve covered here before, or on the Old Site, so if there’s a hyper-specific variant I’ve missed, please know this was not a personal slight, at least not one I’m admitting publicly, but I’m pretty certain You Know What You Did. To get the basic categories, I’m starting with a very basic analog fuel gauge, one that uses the minimum of three notated points on the semicircular dial: one to indicate a full tank of fuel, one to indicate a half tank, and one to indicate an empty vessel, devoid of fuel, and, perhaps, hope. Okay, so, let’s see what these common categories are:
The first is extremely common, especially on American cars, which is why I’ve named it American Iron. I also called it American Iron because the chemical symbol for iron is Fe, and “F” and “E” are the letters here, so I’m feeling pretty flapjacking smug about myself right now, with that little hidden periodic table easter egg. You’re welcome. So, in this version, F means Full, E means Empty, and a conventional 1/2 fraction is used to indicate the middle state. This is generally pretty quickly understandable, but it does require a knowledge of English, which may not be spoken or read by the driver, possibly requiring localized versions, which costs money. Still, this one is kind of the iconic example of a fuel gauge.
The Teutonic Basic is named so because it seems to show up mostly on German cars. My old VW Beetle uses one like this, for example, but there’s plenty others. The notable traits about this type is the use of the 1/1 notation for full, or, maybe more accurately here, “whole,” and then 1/2 for half, and, most confusingly to the uninitiated, R for empty. The reason for R that I had always heard was that it means “reserve,” suggesting you’re in an emergency reserve fuel supply, something that was literally the case with pre-1962 VW Beetles, which had a reserve fuel tank, with one gallon capacity, instead of a fuel gauge: These have a certain sense of precision to them because of the very math-rational-like 1/1 full notation, but that R is pretty confusing to a lot of people who have never dealt with the concept of a reserve fuel tank. Still, some people may prefer the idea of being in “reserve” as opposed to “empty,” as one is a warning and one is a state where you’re already boned. Sort of.
Teutonic Unreduced is basically like Teutonic, but for reasons I’m can only guess at, the fractions have not been reduced, and usually have a denominator of 4. So, we have 4/4 for full, 2/4 for half, then our friend R again for empty. Perhaps some use 0/4? It seems R is more common, though.
The Binary category shuns vague and language-localized letters in favor of the international language of math. Here 1 is full – though 1 may be expressed as a fraction, like 1/1 or 4/4 – and empty is just 0. The halfway point is either 1/2 or sometimes 2/4, and how this is used seems pretty random. For example, you’d think if you started with 4/4 for your whole, you’d keep the 4 denominator for half but look:
— Sid Bridge (@SidBridgeComedy) June 21, 2022 4/4, then 1/2. It’s weird. I’m really wondering if anyone uses 8/8 or 16/16 or something that maybe reflects the actual number of gallons the tank holds, so we could get bonkers gauges like 13/13 and 6.5/13 and 0.
I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fuel gauge that uses decimals instead of fractions, but I just felt like that should be an option here. It somehow seems to fit if you really want to commit to the 1 to 0 scale, right?
I like this kind, because it neatly circumvents any issues with language or math or literacy at all, relying on simple, easily understandable pictograms. Now, really, any shape could be used here, little squares or rectangles or stars or whatever, as long as one is filled, one half-filled, and one empty. But it’s almost always little balls. The balls tend to resemble those Harvey Balls, the hilariously-named symbols used by Consumer Reports magazine for their ratings:
Hey, here’s a weird coincidence: another famous simple round symbol, the smiley face, was invented by a designer named Harvey Ball. What the hell, reality? You couldn’t have picked another name? This is almost as bad as the fact that there’s the Levi-Strauss anthropologist and the Levi Strauss blue jeans guy, or Armand Hammer and Arm and Hammer baking soda. It’s just weird. Okay, so I think these are the most common categories out there, and I bet you have preferences, so let’s see what they are, with the magic of a poll! Quiz Maker Finally, we’ll know! Once we have the results, I’ll hand-deliver them to the King President of Automobiles and they’ll make sure that all carmakers use the winner going forward, as well as retrofitting every single car on the road, at the cost of, likely, billions. https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/rhwAAOSw9RZeRBL3/s-l640.jpg http://www.chesh.co.uk/projectturbor/newengine/gauges.jpg It has the visual fuel door side indicator at the top and ten vertically stacked blocks that disappear as you drive. All good, except the “F” and “E” at the top and bottom. Wonder how you’d get around it in that case, while still keeping the blocks. It’s definitely precise enough for my needs; this thing doesn’t have the range or fuel economy of a typical Prius so I usually keep it above 1/4 tank anyway. And also, you forgot about the digital gauges with the bars 😛 There are also vertical gauges. Do you prefer vertical over horizontal? The Fe iron would make sense, as the F would be on top of the E I voted Teutonic Unreduced So here we go: “Naught” – when the vehicle has already ran dry and the petrol is a dead parrot – no more. 0-5% remaining. “Cockles” – which means you’re about to have your posterior pinkered if you don’t fill soon. 5-13% remaining “Nothing to see here, move along” – 13-37% remaining “Jezza” – enough fuel to hoon about for a scant bit of afternoon. 37-53.72% remaining “Chaffed” – happy enough to have a full-ish tank. 53.72-88.88% remaining “Jacked to the tits” – more or less totally full. 88.88-97.4836876% remaining “Boris Johnson” – needs no explanation 97.4836876-99.5% remaining “Bloody Hell” – you managed to top the tank and must have had to fuddle with the petrol nozzle a dozen times to get there. 99.5-100% remaining. If we go with something more american, we just reverse the “F” and the “E”. F is for “Fucked” as in the tank is dry. “E” is for Enough (gas to get there… maybe) Also, as I noted on the Autopian article about it, that’s not a crappy design. It’s actually a very minimalist design that still provides sufficient information to accurately plan your fuel fillups. Conversely, my ’64 Corvair has an inverted pyramid for a tank and evenly spaced gauge lines. Consequently, 3/4 is actually 1/2, 1/2 is actually 1/4, and 1/4 is the reserve. Also, more important than how the levels are labeled, can we all agree that the greatest innovation in fuel gauges was the addition of the little arrow to show you which side of the car the cap is on? As someone who has driven a ton of rental cars this tiny detail has made a huge difference in my quality of life and mental health. From this first error it was further extrapolated to mean that “Reserve” is the same as “Empty”. It is not. It is exactly what it purports to be, a Reserve of a part of the whole. When your fuel gauge tells you that it has arrived at “R” it is telling you that you have arrived at your reserve. This is further demonstrated by every one of the gauges depicted by a portion of the ark being thicker in width and colored bright red. This Is All I’m Gonna Say About This! https://media.ed.edmunds-media.com/volkswagen/phaeton/2004/evox/2004_volkswagen_phaeton_sedan_v8_ip_evox_1_1280x855.jpg Jason, please never change.
