Honda demonstrates ‘Pay by Car’ at 2017 CES Las Vegas

A couple of year ago Honda opened its techno-development doors to young software and Ap developers in Cupertino, California, the heart of Silicon Valley. Today at the the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, Honda demonstrated a “Pay by Car” smartphone integrated car to service payment system that allows the driver to pay for select garage parking and refueling services without leaving the driver's seat. I dare to speculate that fast food is next! I reported on that collaboration here.

Hack my phone, hack my car, hack my bank account

Yes and no! While the possibility of hacking one’s computer , smartphone, or smart car exists, I believe it’s a gamble most consumers are willing to take as we drive hood first into a world of automated everything.

What we witness today at the consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas will become mainstream, much of it by the end of this decade. Today automotive development is progressing quicker than at anytime since the advent of the car. Looking to a fast approaching world of stage 5 autonomous (self driving) driving cars, it makes practical sense to access and pay for garage parking and refueling without leaving the vehicle, safer too.

In-fact, in the blink of a cosmic eye, your car, without you in it, will drive itself out of a heated garage, refuel, deliver the kids to school, run errands, and then return to the house or office. I drive Accord mostly ‘ break-free’ on the freeways of Los Angeles.

A mobile world according to Honda

*Developed by the Honda Developer Studio, the fuel and parking proof-of-concepts offer a quick and seamless in-vehicle payment solution, delivered through smartphone integrations. Honda and Visa first joined forces last year and they are now joined by Gilbarco Veeder-Root and IPS Group, Inc. in collaborating in the effort to transform the way consumers make in-vehicle payments for everyday services such as gasoline and public parking.

"Payments have evolved from physical plastic cards to a digital, mobile wallet and Honda sees this as an opportunity to bring this technology into the car to pay for services from the comfort of one's own car," said John Moon, Developer Relations Lead at Honda Developer Studio. "Together with Visa's payment technology expertise and new partners like Gilbarco Veeder-Root and IPS Group, Inc. who are experts in their fields we can create a whole new in-vehicle experience for our customers focused on simplicity and convenience."

"Turning the car into a platform for payments offers a nearly endless array of ways for automakers, drivers, merchants and other infrastructure companies to completely transform tasks that are tied to cars in some shape or form," said Avin Arumugam, senior vice president, Internet of things (IoT), Visa Inc. "Working with Honda, we both see the huge opportunity this presents for our respective industries, and how we can collectively simplify many daily tasks from the car."

*American Honda