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Price monitor Stefan Meierhans (54) criticizes the petrol price radar of the Touring Club Switzerland (TCS). The prices are often out of date and incomplete, which is why he argues for a price reporting obligation for filling stations based on the Austrian model.
It is important that the TCS price radar exists, but it will reach its limits in the near future, says Meierhans. The reason for this is artificial intelligence (AI).
The TCS petrol price radar
The TCS petrol price radar was launched last autumn. This is intended to help motorists find the cheapest petrol station in the area. But the radar has some weaknesses.
The petrol and diesel prices in the TCS radar must be entered by the customers themselves. This has two drawbacks: First, not all gas stations are on the radar. Second, the prices entered by customers are often not up to date.
Filling stations rely on AI?
According to the price monitor, not having the prices up to date is a problem because if the numbers are not up to date, the radar loses all usefulness. For the TCS radar, this problem is likely to get worse in the future as gas stations adjust their prices at an increasingly rapid rate. According to Meierhans, gas station operators such as Migrol AG are already using artificial intelligence to optimize prices.
“The experience of other countries shows that prices change several times a day when they are optimized and captured by price algorithms,” writes Meierhans. Keeping up with these constantly optimizing algorithms is almost impossible for a platform like TCS’s, where customers have to enter the prices themselves.
When asked by Blick, the TCS says: “In Switzerland, the fuel price changes two to four times a month in the current year, which is why you can rely on our petrol price radar”. However, it is admitted that the TCS radar could reach its limits with such rapid price changes.
According to TCS, 3835 filling stations are shown throughout Switzerland, about 120 are missing. This means that 97 percent of Swiss filling stations are on the radar. About 10,000 people use the radar every day and a total of 31,000 people have a profile and enter petrol and diesel prices.
Gas station operators deny the use of AI
Meanwhile, Migrol denies using artificial intelligence to optimize prices at gas stations: “Migrol does not use artificial intelligence for pricing,” said Andreas Flütsch, CEO of Migrol, when asked. This is still done manually.
In the future, however, it is to be expected that artificial intelligence will be used for pricing or optimization: “We are exploring the technical possibilities in a few locations,” Flütsch told Blick.
Shell “generally does not provide information about prices”. Anders Socar. It says on request that artificial intelligence is not used for price optimization and that it is not intended to be used.
Source:Blick
I am Liam Livingstone and I work in a news website. My main job is to write articles for the 24 Instant News. My specialty is covering politics and current affairs, which I’m passionate about. I have worked in this field for more than 5 years now and it’s been an amazing journey. With each passing day, my knowledge increases as well as my experience of the world we live in today.
