There is now a company that will fill your car gas tank at your house or job

[dixiegrrrrl]

so you do not have to pump your own at stations.

As seen on Gizmodo:

Yet another success for our burgeoning class of Silicon Valley overlords and their relentless quest to delegate all menial tasks in life to some sort of app: Booster, a company which dispatches gas trucks to the parking lots of “private communities” so their inhabitants never need to refill their own gas tanks, is now a thing.

Booster recently raised $20 million in a Series B funding round, per TechCrunch, which has brought the company’s total funding to some $32 million. CEO Frank Mycroft told TechCrunch the service is “reinventing the concept and habit of getting gas for the 21st century,” describing going to the gas station as the “least fun thing in the week.” In practice, that means the company has partnered with tech giants including “Cisco, Oracle and Facebook” to have the trucks stop by on a regular basis and refill employees’ tanks while they are busy ensuring our dystopian future.

http://tinyurl.com/ybqcb6gd

[Purveyor]

1. Hmmm...might also work in less affluent neighborhoods where just stopping to fill your

tank is risk...

[Angry Dragon]

2. slow head shake

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. This is a genuine job creation thing.

And no, I'm not being sarcastic or ironic.

I'm old enough to remember before self-serve gas stations. I haven't a clue how many jobs disappeared when they all (except in Oregon and New Jersey), but jobs did go away. This scheme brings a few of them back.

I will say, that calling someone up to come to my place to fill my car's gas tank seems like a huge hassle, but that's just me, not the ones who'll be using this service.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. Call? Nobody calls anymore. There's an app for that.

Probably three or four taps at most.

[JI7]

6. until they can get Robots to do it

[patricia92243]

5. Job creation is a good thing. n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

7. I've known people in Silicon Valley who've spent up to 3-4 hours a day - every day- commuting

not surprising that they'd want to shave off any additional time having to stop at the Chevron.

[mr_lebowski]

8. If we didnt't already have the massive infrastructure investments in 'gas stations' ...

And there wasn't so much NEED for us to get off of fossil fuels ... I could see something like this MAAAAYBE possibly making sense ... in 10 years, when basically most cars are likely to be web-enabled, and could just transmit to some master cloud-based system that distributes 'orders' to the 'nearest local pump-truck affiliate' a message saying 'I'm low on fuel come fill me up, here's my tank cover code, and the code to let you open the garage/gate where this vehicle is ATM" ... it might've made some sense under the right circumstances ...

But there's too much sunk cost in our present system of 'gas stations', and we need to get the hell off of 'gas' anyways, so ... I doubt this ever takes off, other than MAAAAYBE in some very, very wealthy and small-scale situations.

From an actual present/current day/practical scenario, the biggest barrier I could see with it right now ... is that a) people don't leave their cars in a totally accessible locations if they can avoid it ('garages' are pretty popular) and b) most cars you can't just walk up to and pop open the gas-fill door, and c) nobody wants to have to 'notify others' that they might just wanna jump into their car and bail at any time.

You really can't (profitably) have a 20,000 lb tractor trailer full of gas ....driving 15 miles out of it's way to refill someone's Beemer ... but they left 5 minutes earlier, and told no-one.

Then the truck drives around the block a couple times (in traffic), looking for you, calling you ... but you forgot ... and suddenly your 'convenient' service is sending you a $400 bill for leaving the spot the truck came to give you gas ...

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. Ummmmm...it isn't a new idea and most of the issues you cite aren't really issues

Commercial fleet fueling has been around for decades, where a fuel truck (NOT a "20,000 pound tractor trailer" ) has gate access and fuels all the trucks under contract at a specific time - maybe the middle of the night or whenever with no issues at all

If you worked in an office park it would be no big deal to simply pop open your fuel door as you exit your car on the day of the week the truck was to come by. Also that office park with perhaps hundreds of cars represents a captive audience.

You want fuel? Pop your fill door. Don't want fuel? Leave it closed. Simple indication to the driver.

Again, this is not a new idea and if the fueling company can do it for a reasonable price over the pump price, it will succeed.

[oberliner]

10. These paragraphs are more than a little snarky

Clearly a chip on the writer's shoulder.

[SecularMotion]

12. A gas station on wheels?

Sounds like a recipe for disaster

[LanternWaste]

15. Sounds almost as disastrous as the fleet of fuel tanker trucks already in use

Sounds almost as disastrous as the fleet of fuel tanker trucks already in use for commercial, agricultural, marine, and industrial fuel delivery applications.

[JoeStuckInOH]

17. How do you think gas stations get their fuel? lol

[SecularMotion]

20. Gasoline Tankers Seen as 'Rolling Bombs' of the Road

Transportation: Imperfect, top-heavy design and thin tanks contribute to the potential for disaster.

CARMICHAEL, Calif. — On a peaceful morning in February, 1991, a fiery gasoline-tanker crash jolted this Sacramento suburb like a terrorist car bomb.

Residents awakened about 3:15 a.m. to a thunderous blast after a fully loaded tanker truck rolled over, skidded 110 feet on its side and landed on a parked car in a field at the edge of a tranquil residential neighborhood.

Incredibly, no one died. But property damage spread for blocks, including two homes that burned to the ground. "It was like a war zone," said Mike Griffin, one of the first police officers to arrive.

The accident lent graphic testimony to a simple truth about the omnipresent gasoline tanker: It is easily the most destructive and deadly of all vehicles that carry hazardous materials on the nation's highways.

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-09-21/news/mn-832_1_gasoline-tanker

[JoeStuckInOH]

21. I witnessed a deisel tanker explode once. It was pretty amazing.

The river of liquid fire spreading is simultaneously just as remarkable as one would expect while still being unbelievable. There is ALOT of fuel in those things and then it burns longer than you would think. Especially when no fire departments show up.

[tanyev]

13. I don't need someone to pump gas for me, but I do miss full service stations.

Used to go to one every so often to check my tires and fluid levels.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. We just lost our only full service station. It was sad, actually.

"Mr. Pete" had a 2 pump station close to our lil town courthouse, for decades.
fill, check oil, do air, wash windshield ( a really appreciated service during the spring/fall love bug season)
He put 2 kids kids thru college, one is a doctor now, one is a successful businesswoman around town.
Actually lives a block from me, very nice home.
Paid 2 guys to work as minor mechanics/gas pumpers, they might not have made a lot of money, but they were with him for years, and I used his station, altho a few cents more for gas, for the service and because it was close to work/home.
they would detail your car for 15.00, excellent job.

He finally closed the station down a few years ago when he retired...at age 88.

I love this town.

[TheBlackAdder]

18. NJ - It's against the law to pump your own gas. Gas Lobby tried to overturn, residents said no!

.

While we all pump our gas in other states, it's nice to pull up and have someone do it.

It might take another minute, but you don't have to leave your car, or can go into the convenience store.


If Christie didn't fuck up the state, we'd still have the 2nd lowest gas tax in the country. Even with this new tax, regular gas just went to $2.20-2.35/gal. Gas stations just don't want to employ people, that's why they want self-serve, and they've talked others into accepting this as a form of independence and to speed your trip. Plus, they get to surcharge if you want full-serve.

In NJ, it's not an option, so they don't even try or raise prices to compensate for it.

.

[crazycatlady]

22. they still exist

Come to New Jersey-- where people are proud not to pump gas

[NightWatcher]

16. Do you have to leave your car unlocked so they can open the fuel door?

Or so you have to stop what you're doing and unlock it for them, then relock, and then go back to your day?

How much does this service cost?

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. Those details not available yet, I think. n/t