Gas pump practice: a pretend pump to pay at and fill a tank from

A real gas pump

• Pumps differ a great deal. The screens, the words, the buttons and the order change from one station to the next. What follows is how it often goes, not how any one pump works.
• Which side of the car. The gas goes in behind a small door on one side of the car. On many cars, a small arrow next to the gas pump picture on the dashboard points to that side.
• Before any gas. The signs on a pump usually say to turn the engine off and not to smoke. The signs on the pump in front of you are the ones to follow.
• Which fuel the car takes is usually printed inside the small door, on the cap, or in the car’s manual. Gasoline often comes in three grades, each with a number on its button; regular is the lowest number and usually costs the least. The manual says which one the car needs.
• Diesel is a different fuel. A car made for gasoline does not run on diesel, and a diesel car does not run on gasoline. The diesel handle often has its own color, but colors change from station to station: the word on the handle and on the button is the thing to read. If the other fuel has gone into a tank, the common advice is to leave the engine off and call for help.
• Paying at the pump usually starts with the card. The pump may ask whether it is credit or debit. A debit card asks for its PIN. A credit card often asks for a ZIP code: the five-number postal code of the address where the card’s bill goes.
• The hold. With a card, a pump often sets aside more money than the sale for a while, and the bank lets the rest go later. How much, and for how long, is up to the station and the bank.
• Paying inside. Each pump has a number, on a sign on it or above it. The cashier is told that number and an amount: “twenty on pump four”. Cash is usually paid before the gas is pumped. If the tank fills up before the money is used up, the rest is given back inside.
• The price on the sign is for one gallon, and usually ends in a small 9: nine tenths of a cent. Some stations have one price for cash and another for cards; the sign says so.
• The nozzle is the metal spout at the end of the hose. It goes all the way into the opening of the tank, and gas comes out while the handle is squeezed. When the tank is full, the handle clicks off by itself. Squeezing again after the click often spills gas.
• The cap. Many caps are turned until they click. Some cars have no cap at all, only the small door and a flap behind it.
• Where a worker pumps the gas. In New Jersey, drivers do not pump their own gas: a worker at the station does it, and the driver says the grade and the amount from the car. Anywhere else, walking inside and saying “this is my first time” is an ordinary thing to do.

How the lessons work

• The pretend pump is the dark box. The pale part at its top is its screen: it shows what the pump is asking, the price of a gallon of each fuel, and its choices, which are buttons on the screen itself. Once a grade is chosen, it shows the gallons and the sale instead.
• Four grade buttons stay under the screen the whole time: “Regular”, “Midgrade”, “Premium” and “Diesel”. The pretend car takes gasoline every time, and never diesel.
• The box with the dashed edge is your car and your hands. Seven buttons stay there: “Turn the engine off”, “Take the gas cap off”, “Lift the nozzle”, “Put the nozzle in the tank”, “Squeeze the handle”, “Put the nozzle back” and “Put the gas cap back on”.
• The line under those buttons says how things stand: whether the engine is running, whether the cap is on, and where the nozzle is.
• The buttons are pressed with a mouse, a finger, or the Tab and Enter keys.
• Nothing is typed. “Put the card in, and take it out” stands for the card. “Type the ZIP code” and “Type the PIN” each stand for typing one; the page takes no numbers. A real PIN or card number is never something to type on a website. The card has a page of its own: Card reader practice.
• “Go inside and pay” stands for the walk to the cashier. The page says the pump number and the amount, and hands over made-up cash.
• The yellow line under the pump says what the last press did, and what comes now.
• A choice the step is not after changes nothing: the pump stays on the same screen and the yellow line says so. A real pump would go on with that choice, and would take any grade that is pressed.
• The steps say no to the rewards card and to the car wash every time. That is only so that saying no gets practiced; what to buy is yours to decide.
• The pretend pump counts nothing against you. A button pressed out of turn changes nothing, and nothing spills.
• “Next step” answers only when the step is done. Until then it is gray. On the last step of a lesson it says “Finish the lesson”.
• The page waits. There is no countdown, and nothing is timed or counted. “Start this lesson again” asks for other prices and another pretend car.

Every time the page is built, a program makes 6,000 lessons, half in English and half in Spanish, and walks through their 12,000 steps, pressing the buttons itself: that the choice a step is after is on the screen, that no step is done before it begins, that the right presses in order end the step, that every other button, every other grade and every other choice leaves the pump where it is, that diesel is never taken, that the pump shows no gallons and no sale until the handle has been squeezed, that the pump is paid for and a grade is chosen before anything is pumped, that the gallons times the price of the grade come out to the cent, that a pump paid ahead stops at the amount paid, that the change is the cash less the sale, and that both languages ask for the same presses.

What this page does not do

• It buys nothing and pays for nothing, and reaches no gas station and no bank.
• It is not any real pump. A real pump’s screens, words, order and buttons will be different.
• It does not practice tapping a card, paying with a phone, a station’s app, a diesel car, charging an electric car, filling a gas can, or checking the oil or the air in the tires.
• It does not know the prices or the rules of any station, which fuel your car takes, or how much money a bank will hold. The car’s manual and the station’s workers are the ones to ask.
• It cannot practice the hands: finding the lever that opens the small door, turning the cap, the weight of the hose, holding the handle.
• It has not been tried by people. A program tried the page with a mouse and a keyboard in one browser. It has not been tried on a touch screen, with a screen reader, a switch or an eye tracker.
• It keeps no record of lessons done, gives no certificate and makes no promise about how any real stop for gas will go.