Dutch robot promises to fill your gas tank, won't clean windshield
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 4th 2008 1:11PM
posted February 4th 2008 1:11PM
As if robots didn't already have enough of our jobs, a group of Dutch inventors have now taken the wraps off their new car-fueling robot, which they hope will one day be filling up your tank at a gas station near your. Coming in at the relatively bargain price of €75,000 (or $111,100), the bot can apparently identify cars as they pull up, and reference them against a database to determine the type of fuel cap and the fuel type to use, which should avoid any mishaps. Somewhat interestingly, the inventors admit that the technology isn't an entirely new idea, and they give credit for the inspiration to the robots used for milking cows, saying that "if a robot can do that then why can't it fill a car tank." While it's apparently not a done deal just yet, the team say they hope to roll out the robot to a "handful" of Dutch gas stations by the end of the year.
[Photo courtesy of Reuters/Michael Kooren]
[Photo courtesy of Reuters/Michael Kooren]
Oh yeah, Apple patented this idea a few years ago.
I'm from the Netherlands myself and saw this thing on the news about an hour ago.
The big idea behind it: making it easier for disabled people to use unmanned gas stations. And yes, it opens the fuel caps as well.
Another use would be to make using the pump at night safer 'cause you don't have to leave the car anymore (but how would you pay? :))
Created to help the disabled makes sense. A lot of stations in the US only have one attendant and they can't step out to pump someone's gas.
You could pay a multitude of ways, an ATM style pillar that you swipe your credit card, a subscription based device like Illinois' I-Pass that deducts funds from your account automatically... the list goes on.
This would never fly in Oregon.
Just reassign the label from gas-station attendant to gas-station-robot attendant.
In New Jersey it is illegal to pump your own gas so it creates jobs, also the gas is much cheaper than the rest of the country.
So why do we need robots to take someones job and increase gas prices.
I'm cool with the cow inspiration if the worst that happens is the bot reaches into my ride and suckles on my teet a wee bit. However, when it goes aggro and shoves its nozzle into my rear window and proceeds to load my rear up with 87 octane, I will MMOOOOOOOO!!!!
I'm glad I wasn't the only one creeped out by the comparison of gas robots to milking robots.
"Welcome to Texaco. Trust your car to the service with a star."
Five points to anyone who gets the reference.
Back to the Future 2!
Checking oil, checking landing gear...
@MadMike
Wow, your defensiveness really raises questions about your true feelings. I never suggested you are racist. I never suggested you find Indian accents funny (you did that quite well on your first post).
Why do you think that speaking English *without an accent* should be a prerequisite for living in this country? I'm sure your ancestors took diction lessons when fleeing poverty in Sicily before they came over, right? Nearly all Indian immigrants speak English rather well, even if it is heavily accented. And like I said, their kids speak it fluently, without any accent whatsoever.
Oh, and before you vote me down - think of this, I'm the guy that resuscitates your sorry ass in the ER when you're overcome by smoke inhalation, asshole. Woooooo! Fear me! That makes my opinion matter more!
Then you know how I feel when you ask "Where does it hurt" and you can't understand the person. We had a kid stuck in a house that was fully involved and the parents were Hispanic. They were screaming in english but you couldn't understand a word they were saying and the kid almost died. They knew the words but didn't know the language. And Mexican-Americans are usually the easiest to understand.
Knowing words in English and knowing the Language are two different things. When you learned French or Latin in school, they made you learn the diction. We would get graded on our diction of the language.
And my ancestors probably did take diction, because they learned english in school. When I was in the military I was over in South Korea and they had American school teachers teaching English and diction. Now this was the 1990's - but I still think it was somewhat the same 90 years before that.
Heck the department gives us money to learn Spanish, and in that department funded Spanish class - guess what? They teach us to speak the language in different dialect dictions so that the people can UNDERSTAND US.
What's the problem when you call a tech support line? It's hard to understand the person on the other end? WHY IS IT HARD TO UNDERSTAND THEM? If they know english so well, then there wouldn't be a language barrier.
They don't need to learn English, everyone is catering to them with multilingual labels and messages. It's a barrier that's growing rapidly in this new "politically correct" United States where you cannot offend someone by forcing them to learn the language, or criticize their cultural differences.
@Andir3.0
Yes, they will learn English. Talk to the school-age kids of ANY 1st gen immigrant (assuming the kids has been born here...takes only a little longer to learn if they weren't). They will talk to you in fluent English (age-appropriate of course). This is not my guess, this has been proven in linguistics studies. No one needs to "force" them to learn it. It's obviously to their great advantage to be able to communicate effectively in English in the US, so if they don't learn to, their kids will, guaranteed. No amount of bilingual signage will negate the advantage of simply knowing the language of the land.
The first time I cam here in NL, I was surprised that nobody in the gas stations comes to you to fill your tank. Everywhere (expect some small gas stations in some small lost villages) you have to fill your tank.
So, at least this would be the first robot that doesn't replace existing human jobs... in Netherlands ;)
"US Robotics: sh*tting on the little guy."
On takeover day, expect this electronic arm to put a gun to your head instead of gas pump to the trunk.
I ride a motorcycle... I wonder where it'd stick the nozzle if I pulled in?
I remember Shell having this 10 years ago.
Man, I couldn't believe it took so long for someone to bring up Back to the Future 2! LOL That and I remember them showing systems like this being tested on the news back in the 90's. I couldn't wait then and I can't wait now!
Well, okay, I guess robot gas attendants are not the worst thing. But what happens to you if you drop your gas cap and then bend over to pick it up??
I'm gay, when are they going to invent a robot to put the nozzel where and when I want it! Fill me up with high test stud!
I DON'T THINK SO!!!!!!