Self Service

I saw a Kia commercial that showed a bunch of people going to the gas station and doing all the things people do when they forget which side of the car the gas cap is on. That reminded me of all kinds of car widget ideas I had over the years. Back in the late sixties, and though the seventies I built and raced boulder bashers in some off-road racing. There was no rule as to which side of the road the pit stops would be on or for than matter how the pits are arranged. Gas cans don't have enough capacity to fill the tank with just one can. So to speed things up, I built our cars with two filler couplings, one on each side of the car. So why don't car makers do that so we don't have to remember where the filler is or wait for a spot to open up so we can get the cap and the pump on the same side? A couple of associated problems are leaving the engine running while gassing the car or driving off without removing the hose or putting the cap back on. It would be easy enough to make the engine shut off when the fuel door is open or the cap is removed or even when the fuel nozzle is inserted. The filler could even be designed to eliminate the door/cap and still retain all the other capabilities like shutting off the engine when fueling and preventing gas theft and other safety features.

While we are on the subject of thing for cars, tire inflation drives me nuts. Tire should self inflate with clean dry air that has most of the oxygen and moisture and other undesirables removed. Tire pressure monitors and warning systems are good and needed but don't go far enough for the money. I dreamed up a peristaltic pump gizmo for one of our off-road cars and it worked fine. But tire failures on off-road racers and pre-run cars tend to be sudden, catastrophic and of the stuff you tell your grand-kids about. So, low tire buzzers weren't much needed.

As for that on-board trash compactor, our garage robot is supposed to take care of that stuff while it is washing and greasing and airfreshening our ride every night while we are sleeping. They'll have them at filling stations too so we can get the trash taken out when we're on those long road trips and have to stop for 'lecticity and to by more stuff to unwrap in the car. Or maybe when cars start running on farts and sunshine, they'll just smile and wave at us as we drive by.