The race is on for in-car payment capabilities with tech giants taking on automotive players Shell and Jaguar.
At the grand opening of its $200M (£161M) IBM Watson IoT headquarters last week in Munich, IBM announced that it is teaming up with Visa to extend secure payment capabilities into any connected device on the planet.
That could be a washing machine in a launderette in London. It could be a smartwatch on a wrist in Senegal. It could be the hatchback in your garage.
Here’s how it will work: IBM and Visa will give companies instant access to the Visa Token Service via IBM’s Watson IoT Platform, which allows them to infuse secure, easy-to-use digital payment capabilities across their entire product portfolios.
In the case of carmakers, they could integrate this technology straight into the DNA of their dashboards, allowing cars to make direct payments to gas stations or drive-thru operators, for instance. They could even monitor their own well-being thanks to Watson, who could alert drivers when a warranty or certification is about to expire or if specific car parts, such as a fan belt, need replacing. With this information, the driver could order parts with the push of a button or schedule a service appointment at their preferred local garage.
If all of this sounds like a solution ahead of its time, that’s because it is. IBM’s offering will only work if governments and businesses put in the work to make sure everything from infrastructure to in-store point of sales are compatible with the technology – that’s yet to happen. Then again, with the estimated number of connected and wearable devices expected to surpass 20Bn by 2020, there’s no shortage of incentive.
Indeed, other companies are clamouring to get into this space as well. Simultaneous to IBM’s and Visa’s announcement last week, Jaguar and Shell revealed that they’re rolling out what they’re calling the world’s “first cashless in-car payment system”. It works via a Shell app that drivers can tap whenever they cruise into a Shell service station. Drivers can then use PayPal or Apple Pay via their cars’ touchscreen to pay for fuel without having to wait for an authorisation in, say, the freezing cold or the driving rain. The app will debut in the UK (with plans to expand globally) on Jaguar’s F-PACE, XE and XF models.
General Motors (GM) is taking its car-sharing service Maven electric. The company plans to integrate more than 100 Chevy Bolt EVs into its Maven fleet in Los Angeles as part of the city’s ‘Sustainable City pLAn’. Users of the app will be able to select the Bolts as a rental option. GM says the move will allow for nearly 250,000 all-electric miles per month. Anticipating the strain on existing charging stations, the carmaker is partnering with infrastructure providers on building a more effective, robust EV charging network in the area. Next up after LA: San Diego and San Francisco.
Read more of the original article at TU-Automotive.
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