For as long as I can remember I have harbored a completely irrational and wildly disproportionate distaste for refueling the family vehicles, so this story about a Dutch inventor's tank-filling robot was read with rapt if ultimately unfulfilled self-interest.
The robot - dubbed Tankpitstop - is supposedly ready for real-world trials over there, but I'm having a hard time seeing it at a station near us any time soon.
Dutch inventors unveiled on Monday a 75,000 euro ($111,100) car-fuelling robot they say is the first of its kind, working by registering the car on arrival at the filling station and matching it to a database of fuel cap designs and fuel types.
A robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular gas pump, carefully opens the car's flap, unscrews the cap, picks up the fuel nozzle and directs it towards the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.
Won't work if your tank is under lock and key, though.
The contraption sounds impressive, although it would seem the expense and risks - both to automobiles and of lawsuits - would be significant. And at that price, a return on investment may prove difficult.
And, alas, the Tankpitstop wouldn't even lift my personal burden, because it's not the actual pumping of the gas - or even the cost - that irritates me: It's the stopping and the time consumption.
Now if someone would only be willing be refuel my car the way heating oil is delivered to my house.
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Auto-fill the gas tank
You could try my wife's method:
She drives her car until it's almost empty. 'Almost' meaning the low fuel light is on, and has been on for tens of miles. Then she takes my car, knowing I will have to take hers and be forced to fill it up before I go anywhere.
She's says it must be 'magic elves' that keep filling her tank.
HA! My wife does the same,
HA! My wife does the same, weirdest thing...
Refill your car at home!
If you have an electric car, you just plug it in and it will "fill up" overnight, just as your laptop, cellphone, PDA, cordless drill, and other portable electrical devices. If Americans see the electric car as an appliance, it will be easier and cheaper to use. Onlty the tires need to be checked as usual.
In fifty years, gas prices will be so high that only electric transportation will be viable. So we need to improve battery technology as what was done for portable electronic devices.