This may be the case in Australia, but it's very much not in the US. Pay-at-pump is ubiquitous. Barring outliers like Oregon, people are not used to having to interact with another person or walk away from their cars in the process of filling up their tanks. Gas stations do tend to have colocated convenience stores, but going in one is an optional part of the experience.

In the US, it's much more the norm to start the fuel running, then go inside and buy whatever you need, and come back out to find that your car is full and you can simply drive off. Do Australian pumps not have the little latch to allow fuel to keep running without someone squeezing the handle the entire time?

Too many stations in my area of the US (western Ohio) allow this. I was a cashier at my family's independent gas station for a number of years, and it always pissed off customers when we stopped the dispenser when they walked away / got in their car / etc. It's a legitimate safety and environmental hazard (some hold-open latches don't disengage reliably on some filler necks leading to gasoline rolling out of the tank onto the ground). People get used to lax non-safety conscious stations and then act like jerks to the employees in stations who do care.

Yeah you're not allowed to leave the pump running unattended as far as I know, you have to hold down the pump at all gas stations I've been to.

This should be a good incentive for "gas stations" to set up and maintain SAE CCS DC Fast charging for electric vehicles. Put a couple of small tables and a cafe, and people would stick around for the 30 minutes to get a good charge.

That was the premise for CHAdeMO. Stop and have a cup of coffee and read the paper in a Starbucks-esque environment. Perhaps even mingle with one's fellow man.

I don't think it will really work outside of very specific demographics who a.) want to get coffee and read the paper/rss feeds, and b.) have 30 minutes to spend on a charge-centric event (as in you went there to charge, not to get coffee and croissant).

A lot of gas stations now have a screen on the pump that plays ads at you to make up for the fact that you're not coming in. Fortunately there's a mute button and it usually works.

I wonder why there isn't a "Buy now" button, they're already charging your credit card, they'd just need to hire someone to run the item from inside the store to you at your car. Add some sensors like body temperature monitoring; Sweating person who looks like they like their sweets? "5% off this ice cream if you hit 'Buy!' within the next 30 seconds!".

Damn, I think this is an idea. At least for developing countries, were labor is cheap, the runner is the expensive part of this concept.

This isn’t the case in Tasmania, since nearly nothing is open here 24hrs almost all fuel stations have a pay station located by the building, rather than at each pump.

Recently one independent has built a few fuel only prepaid only fuel stops, no minimart and no staff.