New Mileage Graph - GreenHybrid

Jason · #1 (**permalink**) 03-23-2005, 08:20 PM

The car pages in the mileage database now have a new graph option: scaled averages of temperature and trip time. This essentially averages the temperature and trip time graphs based on their appearance. Many people will find that their mileage is extremely similar to the shape of this line. Enjoy!

Stevo12886 · #2 (**permalink**) 03-24-2005, 12:14 PM

Thanks Jason, this'll be a fun one to look at.

EricGo · #3 (**permalink**) 03-24-2005, 01:24 PM

Maybe I'm just tired, but I don't understand the scaled graph. Explanation for the lame brained, please ?

Jason · #4 (**permalink**) 03-24-2005, 01:27 PM

Haha, not to worry. Look at the temperature graph. Then the time graph. All I did was basically average the two points for each respective month. The reason why it's "scaled" is that temperatures may range from 30 to 90. Time may range from 10 to 60. Yet, for the "averaging" I scaled each of these as if they're going from 0 to 1. If the given month has the highest temp and highest time, the point will be at 1. If it's the highest temp and lowest time, it'll be at .5. All you need to really know is that I'm averaging the appearance of the two graphs

Jason · #5 (**permalink**) 03-24-2005, 01:34 PM

Actually, on second thought, no points ever seem to be near 0. Well, maybe what I just described isn't EXACTLY how it works, but you should get the idea. If there are 3 months in the year, this is how data plots (y-axis) are calculated.

Code:

$time = 5, 20, 10
$temp = 20, 60, 70

max($time) = 20
max($temp) = 70

$time = 5/20, 20/20, 10/20
$temp = 20/70, 60/70, 70/70

$temp_time = (5/20+20/70)/2, (20/20+60/70)/2, (10/20+70/70)/2

EricGo · #6 (**permalink**) 03-24-2005, 01:59 PM

I got it Jason, thanks. And a big thank you for working on it.

I'm not sure how the data presented will be used, but I have to mull it over some more.

If I may go back for a moment. I am looking for a way to answer these questions with more accuracy:

1. If I had car A rather than car B, what mpg differences might I see ?
2. I am thinking of purchasing car A. What mpg might I expect to see for my locale and average trip times, if I am a lead foot/average/hypermiler type driver ?
3. I own car A. How am I doing mileage wise, compared to my nearest peers ?

It seems that one would want to cut across every driver's experience, rather than one driver at a time, to answer these questions.

Cheers -- Eric

Jason · #7 (**permalink**) 03-24-2005, 03:38 PM

1. One should probably just look at the % incresae of medians from one vehicle to another.
2. I thought of implementing a "guess my mileage" feature long ago, but with our amount of data, some of which is subjective, it's near impossible to do.
3. Perhaps I can display some sort of stat like "40% of Prius drivers are within 5 MPG of you."