Understandably, the preservation of historical automotive culture tends to restore and care for classic cars. Historically significant cars can be auctioned for millions of dollars – but important buildings are only valued for their purpose and must compete with the value of the property. The number of Manhattan gas stations has shrunk as property values ​​have soared over the past decade. The factories of Detroit’s defunct automakers were abandoned and left to decay. However, Philadelphia got its oldest disused gas station through a move.

In case you missed it:

Chubb, an insurance company, announced a plan for a new office tower in Philadelphia at 2000 Arch Street near Logan Square last December. The property is currently occupied by an above ground parking lot. Right next to the property’s entrance on 20th Street is a small abandoned building. The building is a 93 year old gas station on the Gulf.

Accordingly OCF real estatethe Gulf Station was built in 1930. It’s not exactly clear when the station was abandoned, but it was scheduled for demolition in 1988. The Philadelphia Historical Commission approved the demolition to Gulf, but the Smithsonian Institute and the Henry Ford Museum all opposed the station being preserved in a move.

Despite the permit, the Gulf gas station was never demolished. Parkway Corporation, the project’s real estate developer, decided to spend $1 million to move the station before the office was built. WPVI reports that it took a week to get the station onto the trailer. Then last night it took two and a half hours for the trailer to be carefully moved by remote control from 20th and Arch Streets to Fairmount Park.

Robert Zuritsky, President and CEO of Parkway, told Action News, “You have to stabilize it, disconnect it from the ground, disconnect it from its foundations, and then stabilize it so it doesn’t collapse along the way. We believe we did. This required months of planning and approvals, approvals and blessings from all parties for this to happen.”

The Gulf gas station remains on the trailer in Fairmount Park. The park has yet to decide on a final site and prepare a foundation for the historic train station. When the move is complete, the brick structure will be used by the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

Hyundai has developed a prototype charging robot that allows drivers to charge their electric cars without having to physically handle cables or plugs.

The automaker announced the charging robot last year, but on Tuesday it released a video showing a working prototype charging you Ioniq 6 Sedan at the company’s main R&D center in South Korea.

Hyundai charging robot

The video shows the Ioniq 6 backing into a parking space using the Remote Smart Parking Assist feature, which is already available on several Hyundai models in the US market. However, in this case, the charging port door will also open automatically. The robot then plugs in a charging cable, using a 3D camera-based AI algorithm described in a Hyundai press release to control plugging into the port. When charging is complete, the robot disconnects the car and sends a notification to the driver’s smartphone.

Recognizing that most EV charging stations are outdoors and exposed to the weather, engineers built a special charging station at Hyundai’s R&D center to test the robot under various conditions, according to the automaker. It claims the robot “was designed to function reliably in all environments, regardless of charger location, weather, and potential obstacles.”

Robot charging will likely be necessary for self-driving cars, which don’t always have a driver on board to plug them in. It could also help make electric vehicles usable for people with mobility problems. At least in the US, there aren’t any full-service EV charging stations with attendants to assist with plugging and unplugging a charger.

Hyundai hasn’t confirmed production plans for its charging robot, and it’s certainly not the first automaker to demonstrate such a concept. 2015, Tesla showed a robot charger with a snakelike cord that was the stuff of nightmares. More recently, Stellantis a Mobile inductive charging robot alongside the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept at CES this year. Ram plans to launch its first production electric truck, the 1500 REVin 2024, but it’s unclear if inductive charging will be included.