Connected car payments are emerging as an important part of the evolution of vehicle technology, allowing drivers to pay for everyday services without relying on separate devices, cards, or smartphones. Toll payments are a natural starting point because drivers have already become accustomed to using windshield-mounted transponders to automatically pay as they travel. Integrating that functionality directly into the vehicle could make the experience even more seamless while eliminating the need for additional hardware attached to the windshield.
Audi’s Integrated Toll Module demonstrates how automakers can incorporate payments into connected vehicle systems while addressing an immediate and familiar consumer need. Along with innovations involving traffic infrastructure, fuel purchases, and in-car commerce, integrated toll payments illustrate how the connected car can gradually become a platform for transactions as well as transportation.
Car road toll transponders have become a must-have gizmo to stick on your windshield. These devices provide a line busting service at toll booths plus a seamless payment. As the following article describes, Audi has introduced a toll payment system that is integrated within the rearview mirror.
Aside from all the announcements about autonomous driving tests and driverless ridesharing services coming down the road, some automakers are moving one small step at a time toward connecting cars for practical reasons for drivers.
Audi is a good example. The automaker just introduced a vehicle-integrated toll payment system on some models so that car owners don’t have to stick an additional device onto their windshields to pay for road tolls.
The Integrated Toll Module (ITM) is a toll transponder built into the vehicle’s rearview mirror. The technology is compatible with existing tolling agencies nationwide, which can be linked with a driver’s new or current account, according to Audi.
Audi has been working on another down-to-earth innovation, connecting some of its cars with traffic lights. Audi created a feature called Traffic Light Information so that its cars can communicate with the traffic infrastructure in certain cities and metropolitan areas, which started testing in Las Vegas some time ago, detailed in a video from Audi.
When a car comes near a traffic light, a dashboard display shows the time remaining until the traffic light turns green. The idea is that eventually traffic light systems and cars will be interconnected so that lights will be more reflective of traffic on any given road.
Audi is not alone in the traffic light department, as General Motors has been testing receiving real-time information from specially equipped traffic lights in Michigan. While companies like Waymo, Apple, Uber and others go the longer ball of self-driving cars, some automakers are plodding along, introducing one practical connected feature after another.
The connected car is in its early stages, and certainly payments will be playing a key role in the types of offerings that providers will make available to the driving public. Several apps, such as GasBuddy, are now available for gas station location finders and mobile payments. Meanwhile General Motors recently introduced Marketplace, a service that works within the car infotainment system, enabling drivers to pay for gas plus coffee at Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. Watch for others to follow before too long.
Audi’s integrated toll payment system is a relatively straightforward innovation, but it points toward a much broader future for connected car payments. Rather than asking drivers to install and manage separate toll transponders, embedding the technology into the vehicle creates a more seamless experience while maintaining compatibility with existing toll networks and accounts.
The same principle could eventually apply to many other transactions drivers routinely make from their vehicles. Fuel, parking, restaurant orders, electric vehicle charging, and other travel-related purchases are natural candidates for integration into connected car platforms. As automakers link vehicles with payment credentials, merchant systems, and transportation infrastructure, drivers could increasingly initiate and complete transactions without reaching for a wallet or smartphone.
These capabilities also demonstrate how connected vehicles can evolve incrementally. Autonomous driving may represent the most ambitious vision for the automotive industry, but practical features such as integrated toll payments and traffic light information can provide immediate benefits while familiarizing consumers with increasingly connected vehicles. Each new capability creates another foundation upon which automakers and payment providers can build.
For the payments industry, connected car payments represent another opportunity to embed commerce directly into the consumer experience. Automakers, financial institutions, payment networks, merchants, and technology providers will all have opportunities to participate as the ecosystem develops. Security and ease of use will be critical, particularly as vehicles store or access payment credentials for a growing range of transactions. Audi’s integrated toll module offers an early example of how payments can become virtually invisible within the driving experience, and similar applications are likely to expand as connected vehicle technology matures.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Associate Director, Research Services at Mercator Advisory Group
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