I've never owned a car in a city as dense as SF or New York so maybe it's different in places like that, but this strikes me as yet another example of the "Uber-For-X" SV startup that doesn't solve any real problem. Stopping by the gas station once a week on my way home is simply not a big enough annoyance for me to subscribe to yet another service.<p>I'm also skeptical of the long-term prospects of this business model based on the rise of transportation-as-a-service and the inevitable demise of gasoline in favor of EV's. Both of those factors will be especially pronounced in the Bay Area, where this startup hopes to gain a foothold.
I think the HN crowd underestimates how valuable target users consider their time.<p>I probably average 2 trips to the gas station a month and I have a below average commute.<p>Each trip takes me 10 mins out of my way + 10 mins of fueling depending on if there's a line or not.<p>And it's always before work (I'm in a rush) or after work (want to get home to family).<p>Paying a startup $15/mo to reclaim even 40 mins a month of my personal time is a no brainer.
Guys, guy, can you look beyond what you see today? Filling gas is merely an MVP. The goal at the minimum is to manage every car post purchase<p>Gas is merely a way to start the relationship between the car and the owner.<p>car servicing is a massive low hanging fruit after the gas one. Presently my car is over a month due for servicing, I'll happily pay 15% more to get someone come do it where I parked it.<p>My suggestion to the founders would be to test switching between "refuelling" tagline and "serving where you are" and see which converts better. I believe too many people who need the second will dismiss you on seeing the mundane first.<p>Best of luck!
How do they open your gas tank? I think the most interesting part is their partnership with Firestone... On demand car servicing while you are at work seems like it solves a bigger problem than filling up with gas.
Unfortunately this sounds like another startup that won't exist 2 years from now. They are solving a problem that isn't really a problem. And super long term when everyone has an electric car this won't even be an issue. The potential client base seems really small. They would have to pivot like crazy.
This article from a few months ago comes to mind: <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-02/gas-delivery-startups-want-to-fill-up-your-car-anywhere-is-that-allowed" rel="nofollow">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-02/gas-delive...</a>
> Today, the company’s fuel delivery drivers are 1099 contractors<p>Why? Even if truck driving jobs tend to be contract positions, this isn't any driving job. And it certainly isn't uber.
Having started driving in the age of 99¢/gal gas, I am highly sensitive to price differences between stations, and I choose between 3 stations that are always within 5¢ of each other. I am typically not so price sensitive (with other purchases), but with gas I make minor schedule/route deviations to save <75¢ on a fill up. Curiously, because this startup charges a monthly convenience/subscription charge—instead of an incremental fuel charge—I was actually willing to consider it. But when I did the math, it didn't come close to making sense.<p>Having a service like this would save me some amount of time, I suspect that if I significantly relaxed my fueling station choices, it would cost me much less than $15/mo, and the inconvenience of filling up would be diminished nearly to zero. There are stations very near where I live, so route deviations would disappear, and the lines are never very long.<p>Basically, I think part of the allure of a service like Yoshi is it removes the decision paralysis that results from having many different gas stations available, and having to choose when/where to fill up. Ultimately not a game-changer for me, but I appreciate that it makes me consider alternatives!
I'm curious about trademark issues WRT the company having the same name as a well-known Nintendo character. IANAL, and I know that the context in which a name is used affects whether or not the name is protected, but I've got to think that if (for example) I started an extremely not-video-game-related company named "Pikachu" that I would likely get some heat for it, even if it was just a toothless nastygram from a lawyer asking me nicely to not use the name.<p>Is the name "Yoshi" not as protected for whatever reason (more common name/word/etc.), or is this just a case where the company is in a different industry therefore Nintendo's protection doesn't apply, or is this a risky thing to do? I'm just genuinely curious about how this stuff works, I have no stake in any of it. It's a great name and I wish the startup the best.
I've had a couple of fill-ups with Yoshi since signing up a few weeks ago. It's been great for my Mountain View commutes so I don't have to lose more time with my family because I had to stop for gas on the way home.
I've seen Booster Fuels trucks around at a company I used to work at. To me this makes the most sense as a perk offered by a company not in a major city, that has huge parking lots of cars. I used to commute to Santa Clara 3x a week from SF and needed to re-fuel every week. If the company offered the service as a perk with me just paying for gas, that would be pretty convenient no-brainer.
When I saw the first picture of the article, I thought the premise was that you could get your gas filled while you were actually driving like a plane refueling in the sky. That's not what it is though.
They have had this service in yachting for years.[0] The best is being close enough for a fuel truck to reach.[1]When I was in St. Thomas Carlos Slim's crew were fueling his yacht Helo[2] with the only line that would reach far enough down the dock which only pumps about 25 gallons a minute. The engineers had to hold watch day and night until it was filled.<p>[0] <a href="http://www.petersonfuel.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.petersonfuel.com/</a><p>[1] <a href="http://www.lukfuel.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.lukfuel.com/</a><p>[2] <a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/61/f8/9a/61f89a5b5b122c18ff0f6bd0f193905d.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/61/f8/9a/61f89a5b5...</a>
I'm probably the only one here who actually enjoys taking a break from my commute to pull over, refuel and get a drink/snack while I'm at it. But I can totally see where this would work (depending on how much one drives). I can see my wife use this to not have to deal with getting gas, especially when she drives our two babies around. I wonder if they offer both regular and premium gas as my car needs premium (would be good info to have in their website before I'm forced to download the app). Also, reading on their website they claim it's better for the environment to not have to drive to a gas station. Again, this depends on the location, but where I live (SF Bay Area) there's a gas station on almost every main intersection of roads so it's hard to believe that that would take me more gas than for them to have it drive out to my office.
For all of the ridiculous "fire professionals" <i>because safety hrmmm huuhh drep</i> mentioned in the articles, let me just point out that this(1) is a thing that already drives fairly recklessly through the neighborhoods in my town delivering fuel and doesn't seem to do half of the things these car-fuel delivery companies do to deal with spillage issues.<p>(1) <a href="http://jamesheatingoil.net/Members/1/galleries/Oil_Truck/oil%20truck.JPG" rel="nofollow">http://jamesheatingoil.net/Members/1/galleries/Oil_Truck/oil...</a><p>Edit: Also and aside... the last driver I saw hop out and fill a tank from one of these trucks chain smoked during the entire fill. <i>?!!!</i>
That's kind of similar to how airplanes are getting filled up at KPAO. Fueling truck comes by, doesn't see a white mark on the right tire - refuels to the max. In the end it saves a lot of time, because you don't have to worry about filling it up.
I like it. Gas stations can be unsafe places in some cities. Not to mention the pain of having to get out of your car in -20 degree weather in other places. Also air sensors are frequently inaccurate at many gas station air pumps.
It's funny seeing all these people vehemently defend their $15/mo. In the bay area, where this launched, that's like what, two beers at a bar?<p>I don't get the money argument at all. Negotiate yourself a $15/month raise, if you feel that bad about it. And yes, no shit, in some places in the world (like back home for me) this won't make sense -- so what?<p>The one thing I'd want to have is some kind of ceiling on the gas price. I checked this morning and the prices seemed quite good, but what guarantee do I have that they won't randomly jack up the price when I'm not looking?
If you aren't marking up the gas then the operating costs and profits must (eventually) come from the $15/mo, correct?<p>So does this work similarly to the gym business model (i.e. over-subscribe the service with the assumption that some portion of subscribers won't use it very often and will subsidize the heavy users)? The requirement to plan ahead instead of offering on-demand delivery seems like it might encourage that dynamic ("Crap, I'm nearly out of gas and forgot to put in my Yoshi order. I'll just fill it myself this time").
The safety issues of this seem far too high to ignore.<p>What happens the first time something catches on fire? Will they fill up inside of a parking garage? What about a home garage?<p>How do leaks get handled, small and large?
I am seeing a bigger picture here, on-demand services for your car, mechanical repairs, washing etc the gas is only to get the ball rolling.<p>Yoshi is a really cool name :)
The reason this seems crazy to me is that a fixed appointment time is <i>way</i> harder for me to meet (even though I keep a calendar). I'd rather just schedule my own time.<p>If I could give the service a key to the car (and trust them to figure out when I needed service), it might be worth doing, but I am not a dedicated car commuter.
We are working on a similar idea in Texas area. You can check us out at <a href="http://www.fyuldelivery.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.fyuldelivery.com</a><p>We are still in the beta stage though and learning a lot from customers.<p>As someone mentioned, fuel is just the gateway to get into car servicing market.
There are already self-driving cars and robotic gas pumps [1], how long before this service runs itself?<p>[1] <a href="http://www.popsci.com/article/cars/robotic-gas-pumps-are-coming-soon" rel="nofollow">http://www.popsci.com/article/cars/robotic-gas-pumps-are-com...</a>
I'm curious about how the customer knows they are getting the grade of gasoline that they paid for. The stuff that comes directly out of the pump is periodically measured by regulators. What assurance does the Yoshi customer get that they are not getting 87 after paying for 91?
How are you supposed to do gasoline delivery without keys to the vehicle, when the driver is absent, if nearly every car sold these days has a fuel cap door that can only be opened from a button inside the vehicle?
<i>> You could imagine what could happen if a fueling truck went into a parking garage under a commercial or residential building, it would not be a good outcome.</i>[0]<p>[0] <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-02/gas-delivery-startups-want-to-fill-up-your-car-anywhere-is-that-allowed" rel="nofollow">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-02/gas-delive...</a>
What are the carbon costs of this service? Is less carbon burned into the atmosphere because of this service? Or, more?<p>Is there a public analysis that we can view?<p>Edit: Really? Buried to the bottom for environmental concern questions? Is this another case of YCombinator being unable to adequately respond to critical questions?
Starting a company to make gasoline powered cars MORE convenient is absolutely unethical. Any engineers working on this project should be ashamed for using their skills to make the world a worse place.
> The company has engineered its own gas delivery trucks with a proprietary system, called the Fuel Vault, which allows Yoshi to access any car’s tank, even if the gas flap is locked<p>I'd like to know what a glamorized fuel cell has to do with somehow circumventing the lock on many gas caps.<p>I imagine it's some sort of tool that somehow defeats the locks on such gas caps and flaps, which poses interesting questions about legality (as they acknowledge in the post). I certainly would not signup for a service that risks breaking or damaging my vehicle, nor am I about to hand over keys to my vehicle either.<p>How large of a market is there for this really? Frankly, is this a problem really needing solving? This company must charge a premium for the service, which makes your fillups cost more than if you just spent the 2 minutes it takes to pump your own gas.