Dutch inventors unveiled the Tank Pitstop, a €75,000 car-fueling robot. It works by registering the car on arrival at the filling station, and matching it to a database of fuel cap designs and fuel types. A robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular gas pump, opens the car's flap, unscrews the gas tank cap, picks up the fuel nozzle, and directs it toward the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.

"I was on a farm and I saw a robotic arm milking a cow. 'If a robot can do that, then why can't it fill a car tank?' I thought," said developer and gas station operator Nico van Staveren. "Drivers needn't get dirty hands or smell of petrol again".

Staveren hopes to introduce the in a handful of Dutch stations by the end of the year. A video of the Tank Pitstop in action can be viewed by clicking here