Neste has introduced automated shopping and robotized refueling at a filling station pilot in Finland. With the pilot filling station in Siltamäki, Vantaa, Finland, the company is testing a whole new kind of a customer experience. It is one vision of the future of the filling station, in which goods are sold through a fully automated system and a robot fills up the tank.

The Neste Easy Deli shop at Siltamäki Neste Express filling station offers customers handy Grab-and-Go snacks, fresh groceries, and car-related products such as glass washing liquid. Neste Easy Deli is open 24 hours a day every day of the year.

In the future, as the Siltamäki station shows, refueling will be carried out with the help of a special robotic arm, with no human intervention. The robot refueling system will be tested with a selected test team before being introduced to customers. To use the new system, customers will need a chip installation in the car for the robot to identify. This will enable the system to identify the make of car and the recommended fuel for it.

If the piloting and commissioning of the robotic refueling system are successful, we hope we can add robots to other filling stations as well. Already, a customer can pay for fuel at Neste stations on their mobile phone, and in the future, refueling will be possible without the customer leaving the car. In the future, a robot arm could be a good aid for people with reduced mobility.

—Panu Kopra, Executive Vice President for Marketing & Services business area at Neste