Visa wants to turn your car into a credit card on wheels
Visa is teaming up with Honda on new developments that will allow motorists to pay for gas, or a space in a parking garage, or even a pizza, without swiping a credit card or handing over cash.
The efforts are taking the form of apps that motorists can access through their car’s dashboard, which will use Visa Token Service and Visa Checkout to process payments.
Visa unveiled its concept app at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain on Monday.
“The notion of transforming a car into a platform for payments is not as far off as some may think, and we have made a great deal of progress since first introducing the idea one year ago,’’ Jim McCarthy, executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships at Visa, said in a statement.
John Moon, developer relations lead for Honda Developer Studio, the automaker’s main collaborator on the fuel payment apps, said the apps could fundamentally change how motorists think of what Visa has called “car-based commerce.’’
Over the past year, Visa has been testing in-car payment technology that would allow motorists to pay for various expenses, including lease payments, auto insurance, and tolls. The company also partnered with Pizza Hut to allow consumers to pay for a pizza from their car and have someone deliver it to their vehicle when it’s ready.
Visa believes its in-car payment systems can be used for a variety of tasks including paying for dry cleaning or prescription drugs.
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Fuel App Concept
The first app is called Fuel App Concept. The app can detect when a vehicle is low on fuel and help a driver navigate to the nearest gas station. After parking next to a pump, the app can detect how much fuel is needed to fill the tank and can calculate the cost to fill up.
Visa says the Fuel App Concept will also allow the driver to pay for items in a gas station’s convenience store, and access relevant discount and rewards programs.
Parking App Concept
Visa partnered with Honda and a parking app company called ParkWhiz to develop an app that addresses parking payments.
Visa says the app will allow drivers to only pay for the time used without over- or under-paying. The app displays the time elapsed since parking and the amount owed. The driver simply pushes a button to pay for the accrued parking fees.
ParkWhiz CEO Aashish Dalal said the development could help more drivers enjoy a smoother parking experience.
“Eliminating the need for drivers to take tickets or check out at pay boxes is a giant step toward a frictionless experience and a big win for drivers,’’ said Dalal.
Both apps will go into testing phases over the next three months. The parking app concept will be tested in New York City while testing of the fuel app concept will take place in Northern California.
A spokesperson for Visa confirmed that the company’s Checkout feature is not limited to Visa cardholders. The system can store financial information from multiple credit cars, including non-Visa brands like MasterCard or American Express, and allows users can toggle between payment options.
The spokesperson also said these prototypes will depend on businesses offering consumers Visa Checkout as a payment option.
H/t: CNBC
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