The new digital payment solutions from Visa will contribute to the development of the automotive industry.
Visa Inc., a global payment giant, intends to make favorable transformations in the automotive industry. The company has partnered with Honda and ParkWhiz to turn your car in some kind of wheeled smartphone or credit card.
Together with Honda, Visa is developing an app that will control the level of fuel and inform the driver about the necessity to refuel as well as about the nearest gas station. The app will have information about the exact amount of gas needed to fill the tank and will be able to calculate the cost to fill up. The driver will also get a possibility to purchase convenience store items with full integration of discount and loyalty/rewards programs. The app will be easily accessed via the car’s dashboard.
The collaborative work of Visa and ParkWhiz resulted in the creation of the parking app. It will help people to pay the exact price for a parking spot without under or overpaying. Once a parking session is ended, the elapsed time and amount paid are shown on the car’s dashboard, requiring the driver to simply press a button to complete the transaction.
“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,” said Jim McCarthy, executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa Inc. “Working with Honda to test these prototypes gets us another step closer toward commercial reality, which we think provides exciting opportunities to everyone who plays a role in the payments and automotive ecosystems.”
Visa will present newly-developed apps at Mobile World Congress 2016 that takes place on February 22-25 in Barcelona, Spain (Hall 6, Exhibit Booth 6D40). And now the company is preparing to test the fuel app in Northern California and the parking app in New York City. The testing period will start this spring and will take approximately three months.
“This project demonstrates how apps can truly transform the in-car experience while creating new opportunities for automakers,” said John Moon, developer relations lead for Honda Developer Studio.
“At ParkWhiz we are very focused on creating a frictionless, and of course safe, parking experience for drivers,” said Aashish Dalal, CEO, ParkWhiz. “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. ParkWhiz is thrilled to be partnered with Visa on this ground-breaking innovation.”
Visa has been successfully expanding its mobile payments services recently. In January it added Starbucks, Walgreens, the NFL Shop, the Home Shopping Network, and Match to Visa Checkout. And specially for this year’s Super Bowl it improved the point-of-sales systems in Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium with smartphone- and smartwatch-compatible NFC terminals.
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