Looking like something dreamt up in the 1950s, or Pee-wee Herman’s Play House, the Husky Corporation and Fuelmatics AB “Automatic Refueling System” is a boxy robot that can automatically refuel your vehicle.
Using a highly sophisticated set of tools, including a suction cup on a steel rod, the ARS can detect your fuel filler, open it, and begin fueling with you ever having to get out of the vehicle.
Husky brags the robotic fueling system A.) cuts refilling time by 30 percent and B.) is far cleaner than pumping it yourself, as Sten Corfitsen of Fuelmatics points out, “you don’t have to take the dirty nozzle.”
The system is designed for cars with a cap-less fuel filler neck, like most modern Ford vehicles, and a vacuum-based system clicks off fueling when the tank us full. Husky doesn’t say if it is working on an option for capped fuel fillers.
How does it work? The Fuelmatics video below shows a driver – Jenny Brown – pulling up, calling the number on the pump, and activating the fueling process.
Only two states in the U.S. currently require gas station attendants to operate pumps for customers: Oregon and New Jersey. Foreseeably, these Husky ARS units could effectively do away with those low-paying jobs in the near future.
For states that offer self-fueling, Husky suggests these ARS units could be used to attract customers in high-traffic, highly competitive areas, or those who simply don’t want to get out of their cars to refuel.
Frankly, I don’t know what to think of the ARS. Is getting out and refilling your car so difficult that we need what looks like to be a very expensive robot to do it for us?
What do you think of the Automatic Refueling System? Tell us in the comments.
