Pump your car - and the volume - with Ovation iX Windows CE gas pump
By Marc Perton 
posted Jan 7th 2006 12:41PM
posted Jan 7th 2006 12:41PM
The two most frustrating things about getting gas are probably having to hand over close to $3 a gallon and
having to stand out there watching those numbers go up while your tank fills. And while there's no solution in sight
for the first problem (other than buying a Prius or a bike, that is), gas pump maker Dresser Wayne has some ideas about
how to deal with the second one. The company is showing off the Ovation iX, a gas pump powered by Windows CE, which the
company envisions as a terminal you can use to download music files, watch videos or download and print coupons while
you fill your car. Sounds great — until, that is, you find yourself stuck in a gas line behind some kid who just
has to watch that Hilary Duff video one more time, or until a virus leaves you stranded with an empty tank while the
pump flashes a BSOD.
What a crappy idea. It takes long enough for people to get gas, and they already whine about paying too much. But now, they'll complain because they put too much gas in because they got distracted. Stick to the regular way, and shove some earbuds into your mp3 player.
thats stupid, so It probably needs security updates, and could freeze, or be hacked and start spurting out gas and lighting it and BOOM! yah, gota love people's stupidity.
Come to the United Kingdom, where 'gas' costs around $6.50 per gallon.
the Sam's club in colorado has pumps that look almost exactly like that, the screens serve up various advertisements that you can flip through
Actually there is a solution to $3 a gallon gas (over here in Europe it's closer to $8 a gallon).
They're called plug-in hybrids:
http://alt-e.blogspot.com/2005/01/alternative-fuel-cars-plug-in-hybrids.html
With a plug-in hybrid you charge your car at home and only switch from electric to gasoline power beyond the battery's range. So when you get home and recharge your car you can kick your feet up and enjoy whatever home entertainment you feel like.
James
Alternative Energy Blog
This is a stupid idea. How much time does it take to fill up a car? Maybe 3 minutes? We need a way to make things faster at the gas pump, not make people want to hang out there.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the Prius use gasoline as well? How would getting a Prius of a bicycle solve this issue?
Actually, I can see promise in this idea. How about a little sip of free wi-fi with my fillup. While I fill my tank, it would be just enough time for me to download my email to my Palm Tx. This wouldn't waste anybody's time and would be a great incentive to keep visiting that staion.
hmm.....i do hope this windows version won't hang while i using it.
you know its just going to end up like that figgin TV in a pump fad a few years ago, and only show you flashy loud and annoying commercials. we need to bring humans back into the picture, pleanty of people need jobs. Here in Japan they pump it all or you, and its still only about $5.50/gal for the low grade.
A local gas station has TV monitors built into their pump, it tunes into CNN headline news as you pump. Slow the pump down below a preset threshold and it cuts the video.
I'd imagine they'd institute something similar to prevent someone from monopolizing the pump.
Well being from NJ It would get much use.
It's pretty silly. I just want the damn thing to work correctly. This isn't really the innovation we need in the gas station. How about better fuels, flexible fuels. Or a pump that always prints the receipt right, doesn't drip, keeps pumping when I walk away or translates so the attendants can so more than "Hey Buddy." People don't want download or watch video at the pump.
How about a squeegee that isn't broken, only a foot long or frozen in the damn bucket. Someone should just start a chain of one old FULL service stations.
We already have these at a few Sunoco Stations in Toronto, ON Canada
James, you are focused on one small part of the problem. Plugging in your car doesn't solve the gas problem, it just shifts the cost from the pump to your home electric bill. It's not "a soultion to $3 gas" as you say...
BioDiesel anyone?
http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/faqs/default.shtm
Right on about NJ. These wouldn't be all too useful here or anywhere else really. Do you really need to be bombarded with ads for things you don't need in yet another place? There are improvements that could bemade to pumps..this wouldn't be one.
And slightly on a tangent but...Gas here ranges from about 2.10 to 2.20 the last I saw and we have full serve. Gotta love the "garden state".
Pacey,
You're right the cost shifts to your home electric bill and it's cheaper to run a car on electricity than it is on gasoline. If you electricity comes from completely renewable sources it also means your car can be run completely pollution free and without aiding any foreign governments or political organisations.
James
Alternative Energy Blog
even if they do manufacture them, those things would cost OVER $35,000 and I as a station owner I know I sure wouldn't buy one! I think they should implement stop-levels, so people don't have to stop the pump on 3 cents over 20 or something. They don't have the three cents either, so registers come up short!
I dont know about here in Japan, as i dont have a car, but in Australia 'stop-levels' are common place, you keyed in how much you want to spen up to on a numeric pad, and the pump simply stops at the number.
You can check out a real petrol pump with Mp3 downloads to a classic Fiat 500 at the Telecom Italia Futurecentre in Venice, Italy. We built the pump with downloads in 2004 and the car and pump have been exhibited across Italy with many thousands of visitors - enjoy the videos on our website! Our concept was that you would buy Mp3's and the gas would come free, an incentive to go to one brand of petrol station (with Madonna exclusive for example) over others.
The time wasting element can be eliminated by reducing complexity and making a fluid user interaction process fitting for a 30 second fillup.
You can check out a real petrol pump with Mp3 downloads to a classic Fiat 500 at the Telecom Italia Futurecentre in Venice, Italy. We built the pump with downloads in 2004 and the car and pump have been exhibited across Italy with many thousands of visitors - enjoy the videos on our website! Our concept was that you would buy Mp3's and the gas would come free, an incentive to go to one brand of petrol station (with Madonna exclusive for example) over others.
The time wasting element can be eliminated by reducing complexity and making a fluid user interaction process fitting for a 30 second fillup.
http://www.projectb.co.uk/500_review.html
I've seen pumps like this for quite a while. Our BP stations show ads, allow you to print coupons, and order food from the caf?nside. That should be the limit of it, too. In cold weather, they are a little slow, and you can see the IE placeholder icon for graphics when it switches between screens.
What exactly would you do with the music you download? Transfer it to your mp3 player? The pumps will be backed up because people who don't know how to work it, the attendant will have to be outside doing tech support. And I'm sure attendants are not paid enough to know or care why a music file won't download to a gas pump.
They have TVs where i live in the gas pumps! i dont see though how thats new...
So U.S. gas costs 3 bucks a gallon and England's gas costs 8 dollars?
So what.
England is 130,395 km²
The U.S. is 9,631,418 km²
we have much more driving to get done.
The fact that we are even chatting at this great level is a testament to how far our society has come in a few decades. Think about whether everyday people were chatting like this in the 80s? Likely not. Only the treehuggers and scientists were talking about solar power or other renewables being a complete solution. Their dreams are slowly going to become our reality and then the middle east becomes a desert again.
Shifting "power" is about more than just energy. Its about the balance of "power" in our world.
Sass Peress
CEO
ICP Solar