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Abstract

A fuel information data service system is presented. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention a fuel information data service can include a controller operable to receive information regarding costs of various types of fuel, and to correlate such costs of fuel information to actual operating costs for a given vehicle, based on a known consumption efficiency for a plurality of types of fuel for that vehicle, to calculate a FuelEQ or fuel equivalency for each fuel offering. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention an exemplary system can further include a presentation device coupled to the controller where the controller is further operable to present such FuelEQ information expressed as a cost per distance traveled. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention a location finding module can be provided, and in addition to displaying various fuel costs and corresponding FuelEQ values, a fuel data system can also display distance and direction data for each available fueling station to a user. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention such a location finding system can send navigational directions to a selected fuel station based on a user selection. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention an exemplary system can alert a user when the vehicle is low on gas and has passed within a predetermined distance to a refueling station with a price lower than a threshold Fuel EQ value (value of cost per distance for fuel) set by the user. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention a navigation system can be used as a location finding module, to both determine distances and direction to a variety of local fueling or energy stations, as well as to calculate and display navigational directions to a selected fuel station in response to a user selection.

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First Claim