Don't know about you, but when I finally get a car that does all the driving for me, I'm going to become very lazy, very fast. Which means I'll be super unhappy every time my car needs a fill-up. Think about it: I will have to haul my butt out of the car and fill the tank myself. The horror!
But you know what? It turns out my fears are groundless. Because Husky Corporation and Fuelmatics AB have collaborated on a — you guessed it — automatic refueling system:
Kidding aside, this system could be of benefit long before autonomous vehicles become ubiquitous. According to Husky, it can cut 30% off the time it takes to refuel, so gas stations could sell more gas in the same amount of time, and with fewer lineups.
Also, this could be just the thing for any region where winter has the upper hand — virtually all of Canada, for instance. If you're ever stepped out of your car in -30 C temperatures to gas up, you know of which I speak.
2 comments:
Actually, QNX was in an automated filling station concept being developed in the Los Angeles area about 10-12 years ago. The had some test stations running in Indianapolis, however ultimately it did not go. The big problem was actuaqlly a federal law that stated you had to be able to choose your gas - it could not be automated. That meant they had to have a robotic console that extended to the driver so they could physically select the gas type every time (rather than just having a transponder in the car or a bar code near the gas fill pipe). This was the biggest source of problem in the entire system and ultimately helped cause it's demise - if someone had to roll down the window to interface with the console in cold weather, they would just assume do it themselves or have tell an attendant what they wanted. Sad - I saw it in operation and it worked very well.
Wow, I had never heard of that system. Thanks for sharing, Jeff.
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