It really amazes me that in this day and age of technology that we are still flying around with such crude measurements of remaining fuel on board - surely better systems are available or are they just expensive?
Many large public transport aircraft have integrators which measure (very accurately) the amount of fuel which has gone through each engine since they were last zeroed. I believe that you can have such a system fitted to GA aircraft but have no idea of the price.
A friend recently took me for a drive in his recently purchased (new) car (sorry cant remember what type - cars are not my scene!) fitted with a system which shows "miles remaining" to dry tank based on current consumption. Lots of other data available via the system - surely this should be fitted as standard to new light aircraft instead of the mickey mouse gauges?