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This Couple's AI Called 20k US Gas Stations. Here's What They Learned ...
Matt Cortland (left) and John Fleming (right) vibe-coded an app to let users find the cheapest gas prices. Anthony Anaya-Gorman 2026-04-19T08:41:01.233Z A couple — including an AI researcher — recently built a website using Claude Code. They say their bots act as both agents and teachers. And, sometimes, the AI is a little mean. They recommend prompting AI to critique ideas and explain concepts step by step. Matt Cortland's mom would give him an earful whenever he called home. "She kept calling us to ask us what we can do about the gas prices in the US," he told Business Insider in early April when prices were just hitting a $4 a gallon average. "She'd say, 'It's just ridiculous.'"So Cortland and his husband, John Fleming — a postdoctoral researcher focused on AI systems at the University of Oxford — built a website called Gas Index to track prices. They used a smattering of AI tools to help build the website, including a phone bot that has called nearly 20,000 gas stations across the US to request pricing updates. CMO Dara Treseder talks Autodesk's Flow Studio and how AI is shaping the job landscape Cortland and Fleming said they spent about $5,000 and got the site live in a matter of days.Now, after building a product with AI from scratch, they have a message for students and aspiring engineers: use AI as both a tool and a teacher — and make sure it's a little rude. For large language models, they said the key is to prompt them to critique your work, not to agree with it."You can tell it, 'Hey, my friend has an idea, I think it's really stupid,'" Fleming said. "You fool the AI into thinking that it is doing a good job by giving constructive critiques."Cortland said he often asks AI to "explain it to me like I'm an idiot," while Fleming pushes his models to challenge his assumptions."His models are really mean," Cortland said.From there, they recommend asking AI to walk them through the step-by-step processes of building software."A lot of times, we have it acting as our tutor as we're building projects," Fleming said. "For example, it teaches me the best software engineering practices. I'm in academia — but we aren't engineers. To build that skillset, you can just use AI as a coach. It really accelerates your learning."Just as important, they said, is showing what you build to the world. It's a message that some of Silicon Valley's biggest names — like LinkedIn's CEO Ryan Roslansky and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman — have also emphasized."We're t...
Engineers Launch AI Tracker Covering 20,000 Gas Stations
Two engineers built **The Gas Index**, an AI-driven national gas-price tracker that fills gaps left by Google Maps by combining public data, crowdsourced photos, and automated calls. The system uses image OCR to read station price boards, integrates Google data for major chains, and deploys AI-generated robocalls to query more than **20,000** stations that are otherwise unindexed. Users create ...
Nationwide Cheap Gas Tracker Uses AI to Call 20,000+ Stations Google ...
Conveniently, two engineers have built an AI-powered system that uses a combination of user-submitted data and smooth-talking robocallers to index gas prices across the country and help us find the lowest price at the pump.
AI Gas Price Tracker Uses Robocalls and User Photos to Find America's ...
That is where a new tool called The Gas Index comes in. Built by engineers Matt Cortland and Jon Fleming, the AI-powered platform is designed to help drivers locate cheaper gas prices across the United States using a mix of technology, crowdsourced updates, and automated phone calls. Yes, phone calls.
