Self-pay gas station pumps break across NZ as software can't handle Leap Day

[crtified]

Looking back at the recent history of the company involved, Invenco, the main foundational change since the last leap year occurred (2020) is that they were sold in 2022 to a United States-based global industrial tech company Vontier.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/472444/ivenco-sold-to-us... (sic)

There is a certain pattern there, of home-grown startup, mentored through internal growth and success - then sold off, at which time all sorts of the usual merger weirdness and slipping-through-cracks happens.

[sam_bristow]

Pretty sure I interviewed with this company about 10 years ago. Their software stack was all assembly on the embedded side. They were in the process of developing an new hardware with a soft-core processor because the original hardware was all end of life.

[pants2]

Gas stations in New Zealand are interesting because for the majority of them you fill up before paying inside. They trust you not to drive away with their gas. Self-pay gas stations are relatively new.

[dbetteridge]

Pay before fill is predominantly an American thing.

Australia, NZ, UK and most of Europe all operate on a fill then pay.

Some stations in Australia at least are an exception that open 24/7 and have no employees and are prepaid and some manned stations where they charge at the pump during night hours for safety reasons.

[phire]

It's not a huge amount of trust; They have your number plate on camera.

These days, most petrol stations do keep the pump disabled until a human inside presses a button. I assume the staff member is doing a quick visual check to check for anything suspicious or unsafe.

And it's not like you can't pay at the pump, most petrol stations have supported it for ages, it's just that most people in NZ would rather pay inside. I suspect the historic "fill up before paying" experience is just so streamlined that nobody bothered learning how to pay at the pump, no need to guess how much petrol you will need or risk needing a refund. And if you were going to buy anything else from the shop, it's actually faster to pay inside.

[chimpansteve]

I've had a driving licence in the UK for 26 years, and have never once paid for my fuel before filling up. This is normal everywhere in Europe at least, to the point where I suspect the US is the outlier

[wtk]

I don't think it's uncommon in Europe. I've never had to pay upfront here in Poland. CCTV will record your plates if you drive away without paying.

[throwaway11460]

I drive all around Europe and if they asked me to pay first I'd suspect it's some kind of a scam.

I used an unattended gas station for the first time few weeks ago and it took me 10 minutes to figure out why the diesel isn't flowing... Though I didn't even notice it's unattended at first.

[berkut]

That used to be the case, but definitely Pak N Save and Gulf stations you pre-pay (at least put your card in and approve it) before hand...

[jopsen]

Yeah, I was shocked how many gas station are manned.

In Denmark they are almost all unmanned, and if manned you still pay at the pump with a credit/debit card.

The manned gas stations are for serving hotdogs :)

[wanderingmind]

Its just a dark pattern to make you walk into store and buy junk. Remember the most profit in gas station is in store inside and not in selling gas.

[ls612]

This confused me greatly last year when I visited and was standing around after filling up very confused as to what to do next.

[dang]

Related ongoing thread:

Ask HN: Did you encounter any leap year bugs today? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39554539 - Feb 2024 (85 comments)

[kiwijamo]

Another reason to use exisiting date/time libraries instead of rolling your own.

[HPsquared]

Maybe last time, the company had someone on staff who knew the appropriate workaround.

[sonicanatidae]

I'm sure leap year didn't exist when that code was written, or something.

smfh.