Tuesday, November 29, 2016

what genius ??

In the spirit of moving on (on from what you wonder? check this previous post) I have this for you to ponder today.

An interactive, internet connected, photo taking, music playing, gas pump. Oh it does deliver gas to your tank too. Did anyone EVER ask for this?





has a tablet attached for interaction


I saw a story about this in a Chicago Tribune newsletter recently. It’s a BP (someday no one will remember what the company’s initials stood for) trial. They placed one in a gas station nearby, so I drove over and gave it a try. I find gadgets both interesting and stupid. My initial take on this puts it into the stupid category. However, my track record of opinions on gadgets is not great. I remember saying more than a decade ago, “who needs a camera in a phone?”.

I bought some gas and listened to a little music. Of course this is outside at a gas station so others also listened to my music selection. You are asked to select a music genre. The prompts are all given in a recorded voice. It also offers a trivia game and photo taking. I declined both of those offers.

The music streaming service, Pandora (which I have used for years) is a partner in this. I assume they are the source of the songs played.

Only one pump was equipped with the gadget. I don’t think a gas station could have more than two since the different songs would compete with each other. I’m not sure why BP would want you to spend more time at the pump. During my visit the gas station was not busy. If it was I could imagine drivers waiting to get to the pump being annoyed by this distraction.

One other thought was the songs in their playlist. As I mentioned, you just pick a genre not an individual song.

“Fire” by Jimi Hendrix would be a good one for pumping gas. As his blazing guitar riffs away, he sang:

I have only one burning desire
Let me stand next to your fire

The best song match would be “Classical Gas”.



Do you agree? (oh one more thing - I seriously doubt anyone would care about this gadget pump on a freezing winter day)



No comments:

Featured Post

Feedback can be amazing