"I doubt well see this in production anytime soon (ever) but it was great to watch." Actually several years ago Shell gas stations around me (Indianapolis area) tried doing the robotic fill-up. I was too young to drive at the time, but since my mother was handi-capped, they offered it to her for free to try to get her business. You had to have a special gas cap they provided to you, which didn't come off, it would let the gas pump just go through, and had a spring loaded valve to cover the hole when you weren't pushing a gas pump through it. You also had to have a transmitter in your car, which would tell the gas pump what the year, make, and model of car you had. It then would know where to find your gas pump based on finding the front of your car somehow (infared?) It worked half the time, which is probably why it didn't end up being used. Whenever it failed, it would just call a shell employee out, who would manually pump your gas. Due to this "inconvenience" Shell paid for the gas, hence half our fill-ups were free. I wish this would have turned out, as when it worked, it worked perfectly. However when it didn't work, it seemed the pump just couldn't find your gas cap, and retracted as to not cause any damage.