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James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies

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Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies

#101

Post by IncRnd »

charcircuit wrote: post #34
waldrews wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why didn't they just ask ChatGPT? Oh wait.

For those curious, the first sentence of the response from ChatGPT gets it correct. >On a 1978 Buick Riviera, the gas cap is hidden behind a flip-down license plate on the rear bumper.

That's not what I received from ChatGPT. This is:

The fuel filler door is on the left side (driver’s side) of the vehicle. Therefore, the little arrow on the dash fuel gauge should point to the left to indicate that.

(Most Buick Rivieras of that era had the fuel filler on the driver’s side, though official Buick manuals or build sheets from 1978 confirm this location.)

Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies

#102

Post by iainmerrick »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #81
lostlogin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> whats wrong with usb-a? Which way up it should go.

It's very weird that USB-C solved the problem of "we can't tell which way to insert the plug" by mandating that both orientations should work, as opposed to just making the exterior of the plug as asymmetrical as the interior.

You mean something like HDMI? If you’ve ever tried to plug one of those into the back of a TV, you’ll know it’s still pretty difficult to get it the right way up.

Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies

#103

Post by ryandrake »

qwertytyyuu wrote: post #41
lostlogin wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The person (committee?) who came up with USB A needs sanctions. And Apple Needs more, for putting power buttons and key ports at that back.

No the people who decided that usb 3.2 gen 2x2 and usb 4 version 2.0 gen 4x2 were acceptable names are the ones who should be sanctioned

I still don't know by memory whether USB full-speed or USB high-speed is faster. Boy, tech people just can't name things.

Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies

#104

Post by LordHeini »

mongol wrote: post #77

Is the side to fill up evenly balanced between cars in average? I imagine there is value to make it close to 50/50 to simplify the logistics at the gas station. I was thinking car manufacturers perhaps had agreed so that some brands do it one way and some do it another

No the filler placement is sort of a cultural or historical thing.

Usually European cars have filler on the passenger side while American and Japanese put them on the driver side.

Afaik passenger side fillers are more safe if you run out of gas and need to fill up from a canister at the side of the road.

While driver side fillers are more comfortable because you don't have to walk as far to get there.

Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies

#105

Post by fragmede »

ryandrake wrote: post #103
qwertytyyuu wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No the people who decided that usb 3.2 gen 2x2 and usb 4 version 2.0 gen 4x2 were acceptable names are the ones who should be sanctioned

I still don't know by memory whether USB full-speed or USB high-speed is faster. Boy, tech people just can't name things.

Hey, when we said naming things was one of the hardest problems in computer science, we were right!

Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies

#106

Post by tlavoie »

f4c39012 wrote: post #97

I prefer the pump that is on the side of the petrol cap, but filling up from either side absolutely works for me in the uk, there isn't a "wrong side"

One side is "wronger" when driving an unnecessarily large land yacht. My Civic, it's fine.

Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies

#107

Post by whiteboardr »

phibz wrote: post #6

On cars without the arrow they often follow the convention where the gas filler handle is depicted on the same side of the gas icon as the filler door is in the car.

That was the original idea on how the icon should be used but obviously too subtle.

Moylan basically added a modifier icon for clarity.

Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies

#108

Post by zmgsabst »

namdnay wrote: post #98
zmgsabst wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if there was a single side for filling, direction of approach being random is enough for 50/50 utilization of the pumps — so I’m not convinced there’s a pressure to spread which side the tank is on.

> direction of approach being random is this specific to a country? I'm not sure I've ever seen a petrol station that wasn't one-way

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one that was one-way; but my experience is limited to US, MY, TH, and VN.

In those four at least, traffic can come from either direction so you can have left-handed fills use both sides of a pump.

Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies

#109

Post by alibarber »

namdnay wrote: post #98
zmgsabst wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if there was a single side for filling, direction of approach being random is enough for 50/50 utilization of the pumps — so I’m not convinced there’s a pressure to spread which side the tank is on.

> direction of approach being random is this specific to a country? I'm not sure I've ever seen a petrol station that wasn't one-way

Huh, you’ve got me thinking now.

Here in Finland at least there are a lot of completely unattended pumps that once you exit the road it’s basically just a patch of land and you pull up in whatever direction you want to match the side of your tank to a free pump.

But in the UK where I’m from and just got back from this is maybe less common.

Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies

#110

Post by fragmede »

toast0 wrote: post #91
schmuckonwheels wrote: post #57

2020s UX "experts" would bury the entire instrument cluster under a hamburger menu if they could get away with it. The fuel gauge would be moved three menus deep and thus impossible to find, then removed in subsequent model years when their telemetry data "proved" no one used it anymore.

Most of the instrument cluster is superfluous. My 81 Vanagon has only these and it's fine: Speedometer (which starts at 10 mph and I've managed to adjust so it's about right at 40ish but reports 70 mph when you're doing 60), odometer (5.1 digits), fuel gauge (non-linear, but consistent, the top half is a lot bigger than the bottom half, no arrow because it hadn't been invented yet). And then some lights: brake warnin…

It's all optional if you have enough mechanical empathy. No speedo, oil light, odo, gas gauge. You just get a feel for how fast you're going. You haven't really lived until you've ridden a salvage titled motorcycle with zero instrument cluster across 17 without headlights after the sun's gone down. Sometimes I'm surprised I made it this long.
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